Avnet India and NITK Surathkal partner on AI-based sustainability projects

Avnet India has announced a collaboration with the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal, focusing on AI-driven sustainability projects. The partnership, part of Avnet India’s ESG initiatives, involves the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) at NITK and includes three projects utilizing AI and machine learning technologies.
The first project is an AI-assisted real-time landslide detection and alerting system, using Avnet’s development boards to provide early warnings for landslides in high-risk areas like the Himalayas and Western Ghats. The second project is an automated bird identification and survey system that employs deep learning to identify bird species from audio and video recordings for conservation research. The third project focuses on automated bird sound identification to detect illegal wildlife trafficking, using machine learning to identify bird calls in flight baggage at checkpoints.
Avnet India is also supporting an upgrade of NITK’s Electronic Systems Laboratory with equipment, including digital oscilloscopes and AI-embedded development boards, to facilitate these projects. The upgraded lab was inaugurated on April 16, 2025, by Sunil Kumar G, Senior Business Unit Manager (Xilinx) from Avnet India, Professor Neelawar Shekar Vittal Shet from NITK’s ECE Department, and Professor Bha...