The Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence was inaugurated at National Institute of Technology (NIT) Trichy, by its Director Dr Mini Shaji Thomas, today.<br />'' <br />'' The Centre, with various cutting edge technical facilities, was set up with Rs 1.18 crore funding from the Higher Education Funding Agency – HEFA.<br />'' <br />'' The Centre already has in hand various projects worth Rs 1.27 crores from various central institutes like ISRO, DRDO and the Naval Research Board.<br />'' <br />'' Inaugurating the centre, Dr Mini Shaji Thomas said that interdisciplinary studies leading to socially relevant solutions in diverse areas like crisis management, development of decision support  mechanisms during emergencies like the Covid-19 pandemic  will be some of the focus areas of study by the Centre.<br />''