PhD admissions to the Department of Artificial Intelligence are conducted twice a year, May and December. Interested and eligible applicants may apply through the IITKGP admissions portal, during which they must upload their academic details, including marksheets and certificates of qualifying exams like GATE/NET.

Applications will be shortlisted by the department based on suitable criteria, followed by scrutiny by the Academic Section. Applicants who receive the call letter for the interview will be required to be present with their academic documents and call letter copy at the specified venue in IIT Kharagpur on the date of the selection process. Applicants will first take a written test based on Mathematics, Programming and Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. Those who are selected based on their written test performance and their academic background score, will be invited to an interview by departmental faculty members. The final selection will be on the basis of background academic score (20%), written test performance (50%) and interview (30%). The results will be communicated to the selected candidates by the Academic Section in due course of time.

Working Professional candidates may apply for PhD program only after submitting

1. no-objection certificate from their current employers in specified format,
2. Research proposal approved by at least one faculty member of AI Department.

The approving faculty member should advise the candidate if they are selected.

Syllabus for the entrance exam

Upon joining, students will be allotted research supervisors based on mutual interest and consent. The supervisor will recruit the DSC (Doctoral Scrutiny Committee) of the student, chaired by Head, AI and involving supervisor, joint supervisor (if any), and 2-3 more faculty members. The students will be required to undergo coursework as par the rules of the institute. Coursework may include 2-3 core elective subjects (from AI department), 1-2 breadth elective subjects (other departments) and 1 self-study subject. Credit limit for students with Masters' Degree is 11-18. For Working Professionals, NPTEL courses can be taken instead of IIT Kharagpur courses. The coursework plan will be proposed by the supervisor(s) and approved by DSC soon after the student's enrollment. The student must secure at least 'C' grade in each subject, failing which they may have to leave the program.

PhD comprehensive viva for PhD students will be conducted through written test. Scholars are required to complete their coursework within first 3 semesters, after which they are required to appear for the comprehensive exam. The exam will cover three subject areas (Machine Learning, Linear Algebra and Probability/Statistics) Detailed syllabus will be updated later. The comprehensive exam will be conducted every June and December. A student must pass the comprehensive exam in a maximum of two attempts, failing which they may be required to leave the program.