Traditional engineering courses losing popularity in Karnataka as students flock to AI, ML: Report
Bengaluru: Traditional engineering disciplines such as mechanical and civil engineering are reportedly losing popularity among students in Karnataka, as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) courses see a surge in demand.
Several engineering colleges have approached the state’s Higher Education Department seeking either a reduction in intake or complete closure of conventional engineering programmes, The New Indian Express quoted officials as saying.
This year, colleges had anticipated a revival in mechanical engineering admissions, particularly under the management quota, due to increasing opportunities in sectors like manufacturing and defence. Similar interest was also expected for government quota seats. However, the interest has reportedly not materialised as expected.
A senior official, quoted by TNIE, said that the popularity of AI-related courses has continued to rise from last year. “This is largely due to the increasing number of job opportunities in AI-related fields, strong demand from the IT industry, and a growing awareness among students about the future potential of emerging technologies like ML and data science,” the official said.
For the academic year 2025–26, a total of 1,35,969 engineering seats have been made available across 217 colleges in Karnataka, including 64,047 under the government quota. This marks a reduction of 5,313 seats compared to 2024–25, when 1,41,009 seats were offered across 245 institutions, with 66,663 in the government quota, the report added.
The final seat matrix for the upcoming year has not yet been released. Officials confirmed that decision to reduce or close certain courses has already been made. Any increase in seats, especially for AI, ML, and related disciplines, will be reflected once all colleges update and submit their data.
Despite an earlier proposal to freeze Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) seats, a substantial number are still available this year. A total of 33,813 CSE seats have been offered, including 15,754 under the government quota. Last year, there were 35,013 CSE seats, of which 16,280 were in the government quota. Additionally, 18,492 seats are available in Electronics and Communication Engineering, and 8,538 in Information Science and Engineering.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
