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We are living in unprecedented times, software has transformed how we live. From smartphones to smart wearables, from finding information to buying things, from banking to healthcare, from listening to music to driving a car, every aspect of our life is impacted by computers. This trend will only accelerate with the new age of AI and Machine Learning. The future belongs to nations who can make fundamental advances in Computer Science.
To ensure that the brightest minds in the world get an opportunity to study Computer Science, leaders from Silicon Valley, top American and European institutions, industry leaders, and venture capitalists have come together to build a new University focussed on Computer Science - Sitare University. The first Sitare batch was started in 2022 with twenty four students, and the second batch admitted in 2023 has forty four students. We plan to admit around one hundred students in 2024, and gradually increase this number to around one thousand admissions per year in 2030. Sitare students are selected based upon their JEE mains performance, as well as an interview.
FREE for Bright Underprivileged Students
Sitare Foundation will provide 100% scholarships to all deserving students of Sitare University.
- Amit Singhal, Founder, Sitare Foundation
Sitare University provides high quality Computer Science education to all bright students from underprivileged backgrounds free of cost.
The curriculum at Sitare University focuses on industry oriented CS education. Our students learn Python, Math, Data Structures and English Communication in first year; Algorithms, Java, Systems, Databases/IR, and Machine Learning in second year; Frontend, Systems, and more Machine Learning in third year alongside Hands-on Projects and Problem Solving. The fourth year is to be spent in the industry. Our students get paid internships right from the first summer itself. Sitare University will focus on five specialized areas, especially relevant within Computer Science:
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Artificial Intelligence
With focus on Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, and Deep Learning. -
Systems
With focus on Cloud Computing, Operating Systems, Computer Networks, Data Management, and the Modern Internet. -
Human-Computer Interaction
With focus on iOS and Android Development, HCI Design, Computer Graphics and Imaging, and Web Applications. -
Data Science
With focus on data gathering, data quality, data pipelines, data in Machine Learning, data processing, and data visualization. -
Computer Security
With focus on Authentication, System Security, Network Security, Code Security, Privacy and Policy.
We intend to become one of the best Computer Science educational institutes in India by 2030.
Internships and Jobs in India and Abroad
Sitare’s deep academic program will be coupled with a rigorous industry internship program with internships and employment in India and Silicon Valley, USA. Sitare University already has strong commitments from several industry leaders.
Important Facts
Sitare University will be established near Indore as a full Private State University under the Madhya Pradesh Private University Act. We have started construction of our new campus on a beautiful 38 acre site (near Dewas) on Bhopal-Indore highway. We hope to move to our new campus in March 2025. For the time being, we are operating out of Lucknow. Our students have been offered admission into our partner university, Sri Ramswaroop Memorial University, in Lucknow. Our students are enrolled in a four year Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Science and are being taught by the faculty mentioned here in our People Section.
The intent to establish Sitare University in Madhya Pradesh was announced by Smt. Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Hon. Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare, Technical Education, Skill Development and Employment, Government of Madhya Pradesh, and Dr. Mohan Yadav, Hon. Minister for Higher Education, Government of Madhya Pradesh alongside our Founder, Dr. Amit Singhal.
Faculty Positions at Sitare University
Sitare University invites applications for CS faculty positions. The appointment will be made as a Professor, with rank (Assistant, Associate or Full Professor) depending upon the candidate's seniority and experience. Applicants for this position are expected to have a strong commitment and aptitude for teaching undergraduate students, as well as engage in application oriented research projects through collaboration with industry partners. For more details, please see our job posting on linkedin.
People
Our team has a very deep passion for Computer Science. We believe in excellence, being the best in the world, and giving back to the community.
Shilpa and Amit Singhal
Founders
Dr. Anuja Agarwal
Founding Dean, Academics and Student Affairs
Dr. Anuja Agarwal has a Ph.D. in Management Studies from Mumbai University, a MCA (DAVV), and a B.Sc. (DU) in Computer Science. Before Sitare University, Dr. Agarwal was the Associate Dean of Technology Management at NMIMS, Mumbai. She specializes in Innovation, Design Thinking and Innovation Management. Link
Dr. Achal Agrawal
Faculty, Applied Mathematics
Dr. Agrawal has PhD, Master's, and B.Sc. from University of Paris-Saclay, Ecole Polytechnique and Chennai Mathematical Institute, respectively. His journey is adorned with numerous accolades, including prestigious scholarships like NTSE, Eiffel, and SIA-NOL. Link
Dr. Amit Singhal
Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Singhal is known as the man behind Google search. Before starting Sitare Foundation, Amit was the Senior Vice President of Search at Google and a Google Fellow. Amit has a BE from IIT Roorkee, a MS from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. from Cornell University, all in Computer Science. Link
Dr. Kushal Shah
Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Shah is an alumnus of IIT Madras and was earlier a faculty at JNU, IIT Delhi and IISER Bhopal. He has also worked in two startups (VuNet and Elucidata) and is now building a new e-learning portal for AI/ML education to promote Active Learning. Link
Dr. Pintu Lohar
Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Pintu Lohar holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Dublin City University (2020) and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at ADAPT Centre, Dublin. His expertise lies in Natural Language Processing. He began his career as a Research Engineer in an Indian government-funded project (2012-2015) before pursuing his Ph.D.
Ms. Preeti Shukla
Faculty, Language and Communication
Preeti has been working as an English language trainer for over 23 years. Previously she has held acdemic positions at Study Hall Education Foundation, British School of Language, and American Centre for Languages and several other institutes. Link
Prosenjit Gupta
Visiting Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Prosenjit Gupta, Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, holds B.Tech and M.Tech from IIT Kharagpur. Over 28 years, he held roles globally, including at Max-Planck-Institut, Yahoo, and Bell Laboratories. Dr. Gupta has over 85 publications in various international journals and conferences. Link
Dr. Sonika Thakral
Visiting Faculty, Computer Science
Sonika did her undergraduate studies in Mathematics and post-graduation in Computer Applications. She earned a Ph.D. in Theoretical Computer Science from the University of Delhi and then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at IIT Delhi.
Dr. Urbi Chatterjee
Visiting Faculty, Computer Science
Prof. Urbi Chatterjee, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, IIT Kanpur, is a visiting faculty at Sitare University. Urbi got her PhD from the Secure Embedded Architecture Laboratory (SEAL), IIT Kharagpur. Dr. Chatterjee works in the field of Hardware Security.
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Vishal Yadav
Director - University Operations
Vishal Yadav was the first Sitare team member that joined Sitare Foundation at the very begining. Vishal spent over a decade working in education. We always say that Vishal has built Sitare brick-by-brick working shoulder to shoulder with Shilpa, Amit. Link
Yoram Singer
Visiting Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Singer was the Chief AI Scientist at WorldQuant, a US based hedge fund. Previously he was a faculty at Princeton Unversity, a research scientist at Google, a faculty at Hebrew University, and also a research Scientist at AT&T Labs. Yoram holds a Ph.D> in Computer Science from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Link
Dheerendra Mishra
Assistant Manager, Operations
Jeet Mukherjee
Research Fellow
Rajib Mandal
Research Fellow
Rajat Singh
Operations Associate
Britney Mannas
Media Intern
Advisors
Some of the top technology leaders in the world have come together to build Sitare University.
Ajeet Singh
Program Advisor
Ajeet Singh is the co-founder and Executive Chairman at ThoughtSpot, a company revolutionizing analytics with search and AI. Driven by his passion for creation, Ajeet has built two multibillion dollar technology companies from the ground up - ThoughtSpot and Nutanix. Link
Amit Prakash
Visiting Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Amit Prakash has a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from University of Texas Austin, and a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur. Amit is the Co-Founder and CTO of Thoughtspot, a transformational Business Intelligence company. Before founding Thoughtspot, Amit worked at Google and Microsoft. Link
Ash Lilani
Program Advisor
Ash is the managing partner and co-founder of Saama Capital. Saama Capital is an independent direct equity fund investing in India. Previously, Lilani served as the president of India and China markets for Silicon Valley Bank and founded and headed SVB Global. Link
Ben Gomes
Visiting Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Gomes is a Senior Vice President at Google and a Google Fellow. Ben was one of the earliest Google employees who built Google Search, brick by brick, over the last twenty years. Ben has a Ph.D. and MS from UC Berkeley, and a BS from Case Western Reserve, all in Computer Science. Link
Cathal Gurrin
Academic Advisor
Dr Gurrin is an Associate Professor at the School of Computing at Dublin City University, deputy head of the School of Computing, and a co-investigator at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics and the Adapt centre. Cathal is dedicated to developing assistive technologies using wearable sensors and data analytics. Link
Claire Cardie
Academic Advisor
Dr. Cardie is a Professor of Computer Science and Information Science at Cornell University. She was the first Charles and Barbara Weiss Chair of a new Information Science Department. She obtained a B.S. in Computer Science from Yale University and an MS and Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Link
Kavita Bala
Academic Advisor
Dr. Bala is the Dean of the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. She received her S.M. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and her B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay). Kavita specializes in computer vision and computer graphics. Link
Kiran Panesar
Visiting Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Panesar has worked at several leading companies: Intel (1997-2007), Google (1997-2022), and Cohesity (2022-present). Kiran completed his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in the area of parallel discrete event simulation, and a B.Tech. from IIT Roorkee, all in Computer Science. Link
Krishna Bharat
Visiting Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Bharat is a Distinguished Research Scientist at Google who is famous for creating Google News. Krishna's contributions to building Google over twenty years have been foundational to Google success. Krishna completed his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech, and a B.Tech. from IIT Madras, all in Computer Science. Link
Mehran Sahami
Academic Advisor
Dr. Sahami is the James and Ellenor Chesebrough Professor in the School of Engineering, and Professor (Teaching) and Associate Chair for Education in the Computer Science department at Stanford University. Previously, he was a Senior Research Scientist at Google. His research interests include CS education, AI, and ethics. Link
Neeraj Arora
Program Advisor
Neeraj Arora is the Founder of HalloApp. Previously he was responsible for “all things business at WhatsApp”. He is an IIT graduate as well as a management graduate from the Indian School of Business, gave up his high profile job managing global M&A at Google to join one of Silicon Valley’s hottest starts-ups. Link
Ravi Adusumalli
Program Advisor
Ravi is the Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Elevation Capital. Ravi currently sits on the boards of Paytm, UrbanCompany, ClearTax, CapitalFloat, Tracxn, and Rivigo. Ravi has been investing in technology companies in India for almost twenty years. He graduated from Cornell with a degree in Economics. Link
Ricardo Baeza-Yates
Academic Advisor
Dr. Baeza-Yates is a professor of the practice at the Institute for Experiential Artificial Intelligence of Northeastern University. Previously he was CTO of NTENT, and VP of Research at Yahoo Labs. Ricardo is a part-time professor at UPF Barcelona, as well as at Universidad de Chile in Santiago. Link
Samir Khuller
Academic Advisor
Dr. Khuller is Peter and Adrienne Barris Chair of Computer Science at Northwestern University. Previously he was Professor and Elizabeth Stevinson Iribe Chair of Computer Science at University of Maryland. Samir has a Ph.D. and MS from Cornell University and a B.Tech. from IIT Kanpur. Link
Shashin Shah
Program Advisor
Shashin Shah is the founder and director of the San Francisco-based hedge fund Think Investments. Shashin received his bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai and an MBA from University of Texas, Austin. Shashin was a partner at Valiant Capital Partners from 2008 to 2013, before establishing Think Investments. Link
Sridhar Ramaswamy
Visiting Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Ramaswamy is currently the CEO and co-founder of Neeva, an ad-free and deeply personal consumer-focused search service. He was previously the Senior Vice President heading Google’s advertising business. Sridhar has a Ph.D. and MS from Brown University, and a B.Tech. from IIT Madras, all in Computer Science. Link
Sriram Sankar
Visiting Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Sriram Sankar is the Chief Architect at Anyscale. Previously he led large engineering teams at the world's top technology companies - Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Uber, VMware, and Sun Microsystems. Sriram has a Ph.D. and MS from Stanford University, and a B.Tech. from IIT Kanpur, all in Computer Science. Link
Vibhu Mittal
Visiting Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Mittal was the CEO of ed-tech company Edmodo, and a Senior Research Scientist at Google and Xerox PARC. Vibhu was also a visiting faculty at Stanford University and CMU. Vibhu has a Ph.D. from University of Southern California, a MS from Ohio State, and a B.Tech. from IIT Bombay, all in Computer Science. Link
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Program Advisor
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the Founder and CEO of One97 Communications, the parent company of PayTM. Son of a schoolteacher from a small city in north India, Vijay has a deep appreciation for education, and the transformative impact of education. Vijay also has a strong desire to give back to India through efforts like Sitare. Link
Vishal Sikka
Visiting Faculty, Computer Science
Dr. Sikka is the Founder and CEO of Vianai Systems, a startup in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Previously, he was the CEO of Infosys and the CTO of SAP SE. He serves on the Supervisory Board of BMW Group and on the Advisory Council for the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. Vishal holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. Link
Sitare University in the News
Read our Press Release.
Former Google top exec initiates philanthropy work in India, Times of India, July 19, 2022.
Sitare Foundation Announces Sitare University, Business World, Education, July 16, 2022.
Sitare collaborates with RGPV, aims to provide free computer engineering course, Financial Express, July 16, 2022.
New IT university on the anvil for underprivileged students, The New Indian Express, July 15, 2022.
Sitare Foundation Announces to Sitare University to provide free world class Computer Science, India CSR, July 15, 2022.
Bhopal: Education is the biggest gift, says Yashodhara Raje, Free Press Journal, July 15, 2022.
Contact Us
Email: university@sitare.org, Phone/WhatsApp: +91 78499 10085, LinkedIn
A message from Dr. Vishal Sikka
