Washington, September 9, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
An Indian-origin couple has donated $20 million to the University of North Texas (UNT), enabling the establishment of a new college dedicated to artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, the university said.
The institution will be named the Anuradha and Vikas Sinha College of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics and will serve as an academic hub focused on developing, applying and responsibly governing artificial intelligence, intelligent systems and data analytics.
The donation will establish six permanent endowments supporting college leadership, student scholarships, professorships, entrepreneurship and incubation, advanced research and emerging technologies.
The college will bring together programmes spanning artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science, advanced analytics, health informatics, information science, library science and learning technologies. It will also promote interdisciplinary collaboration through shared infrastructure, joint research and industry partnerships.
“Anu and I see this as an investment in what students will be able to imagine and accomplish in the years ahead,” Vikas Sinha said.
He said the college would go beyond teaching students to use AI, preparing them to build, understand, question, govern and responsibly apply intelligent systems.
The college will have two academic divisions. The Division of Applied Intelligence and Informatics will focus on developing and deploying intelligent systems, while the Division of Information and Learning Applications will examine how information and intelligent systems operate in human and institutional settings.
UNT also plans to establish an Applied Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Institute to connect AI and analytics research and education across the university and expand interdisciplinary research, shared infrastructure, external funding and industry partnerships.
The Sinhas moved to the US from India after earning bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering from Sri Venkateswara University. Both later obtained graduate degrees from Florida Atlantic University.
Vikas Sinha subsequently studied at Northwestern University and earned a Ph.D. in information science from UNT in 2023. He is vice president of the Mainframe Software Division at Broadcom and has served on the UNT College of Information Leadership Board since 2023.
“Education has opened doors for us throughout our lives, and we want to hold those doors open for others,” he said, describing the gift as a way of paying forward the opportunities he received as an international student.
The latest donation builds on the couple’s earlier support for UNT. In 2024, they helped establish the Anuradha and Vikas Sinha Department of Data Science and related endowments. In 2025, they made another major contribution to establish the Sinha Innovation Lab for Data Science.
UNT is a public research university in Denton, north of Dallas, and is part of the University of North Texas System.
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