An Indian-origin couple has donated $20 million to the University of North Texas (UNT), leading the university to establish a new college focused on artificial intelligence and advanced analytics.
The new institution, named the Anuradha and Vikas Sinha College of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics, will serve as an academic and research centre for artificial intelligence, intelligent systems and data analytics.
The couple’s donation will create six permanent endowments aimed at supporting college leadership, student scholarships, professorships, entrepreneurship and incubation, advanced research and emerging technologies.
The new college will bring together several areas of study, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science, health informatics, information science, library science and learning technologies.
It will be organised into two academic divisions. The Division of Applied Intelligence and Informatics will focus on developing and deploying intelligent systems. The Division of Information and Learning Applications will study how information and intelligent systems interact with people and institutions.
The college will also house the Applied Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Institute. According to the university, the institute will connect AI and data science research and education across UNT while encouraging interdisciplinary research, shared infrastructure, external funding and partnerships with industry.
For Vikas Sinha, the development has a personal significance. UNT is the university where he completed his PhD in 2023.
The Sinhas have steadily increased their support for the university over the past few years. In 2024, they established the Anuradha and Vikas Sinha Department of Data Science through an earlier donation. That gift also supported scholarships, faculty and research initiatives. In 2025, they made another major contribution to establish the Sinha Innovation Lab for Data Science.
Vikas Sinha said education had opened doors for the couple and that they wanted to create similar opportunities for others. He also highlighted the role immigrants play in building the American dream.
The couple’s journey to the US began after their education in Andhra Pradesh. Vikas and Anuradha studied at Sri Venkateswara University and G Pulla Reddy Engineering College in Kurnool before moving to the US for higher education. They later earned graduate degrees from Florida Atlantic University.
Vikas continued his studies at Northwestern University before completing his PhD at UNT. He currently serves as vice president of the Mainframe Software Division at Broadcom and has been part of the UNT College of Information Leadership Board since 2023.
The new college comes at a time when artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping industries and education. The Sinhas said universities have an important role in preparing students and researchers who will help shape the future of the technology.
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