UNT to open new college of artificial intelligence with $20 million gi

The University of North Texas will establish a college of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics after receiving a $20 million gift, it announced Tuesday.

The philanthropic investment comes from Vikas Sinha, a UNT alumnus and vice president of the mainframe software division at Broadcom, a semiconductor and infrastructure manufacturer, and his wife, Anuradha. As UNT looks to strengthen its artificial intelligence education, the new college will help advance research and better prepare students for a changing workforce, university officials said in a release. 

“Artificial intelligence will be one of the defining technologies of our generation, and universities have an essential role to play in preparing the people who will shape its future,” Vikas Sinha said. “What excites us about UNT’s vision is that this college will go beyond teaching students how to use AI. It will prepare them to build it, understand it, question it, govern it and apply it responsibly — developing both the builders and the stewards of intelligent systems.”

The college, which will be named after its donors, will have two academic divisions and an interdisciplinary institute, according to the release.

One division will focus on building intelligent systems and cover fields such as AI, cybersecurity and data science. The other division will focus on how those intelligent systems interact with humans and institutions, and include fields such as library science and information science. The applied AI and data science institute will focus on research opportunities around emerging technologies and Texas employers’ needs. 

The $20 million gift will create six endowments for college leadership, student scholarships, endowed professorships, entrepreneurship and incubation, advanced research and emerging technologies, according to the release. 

Tuesday’s gift is the latest philanthropic commitment from the Sinhas, including a $3 million gift that helped create a department of data science in 2024 and a $2 million gift that established an innovation lab for data science last year. Vikas Sinha graduated from UNT with a Ph.D. in data science in 2023 and now serves as a research advisor and college of information leadership board member. 

The investment comes as UNT looks to incorporate the rapidly-expanding technology into the classroom and meet the region’s workforce needs. UNT’s Board of Regents approved a bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence earlier this year, making it one of the first universities in Texas to offer such a program.

It is unclear if the bachelor’s in AI, currently housed under the College of Engineering, will move into the college of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics. UNT currently has 14 colleges and schools. 

The Sinhas, who are from India, also framed their commitment as a way to give back to higher education institutions that shaped their trajectory as international students. 

“International students come to our universities to learn, but their impact extends far beyond the degrees they earn,” UNT President Harrison Keller said in a release. “They contribute ideas, build companies, create jobs, lead communities, and create opportunities for the generations who follow them.”

Fewer international students are coming to the U.S. as the federal government places new restrictions on visas and the amount of time they can spend in the U.S. At UNT, the number of graduate international students declined from about 6,200 students in fall 2024 to about 3,400 in fall 2025. The sharp decline contributed to a significant budget shortfall and cost-cutting measures over the past year.