DENTON (UNT), Texas — A $20 million gift from Anuradha and Vikas Sinha will accelerate the University of North Texas’ work in artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, creating new opportunities for students and faculty in fields rapidly reshaping industries, professions and society.

In recognition of the Sinhas’ commitment, UNT will name the Anuradha and Vikas Sinha College of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics, establishing an academic hub focused on the development, application and responsible use of artificial intelligence, intelligent systems and data analytics.

The gift will create six permanent endowments supporting college leadership, student scholarships, endowed professorships, entrepreneurship and incubation, advanced research and emerging technologies. Together, those investments will advance UNT’s strategic priorities around student success, research and innovation while preparing graduates with the skills and experiences needed to lead in a workforce increasingly shaped by AI and data.

“Anu and I see this as an investment in what students will be able to imagine and accomplish in the years ahead,” said Vikas Sinha (’23 Ph.D.). “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. 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 $20 million gift comes as UNT expands its academic and research capacity in artificial intelligence and advanced analytics. The college will bring together programs and expertise spanning artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science, advanced data analytics, health informatics, information science, library science and learning technologies.

It also will serve as a university-wide hub for AI and analytics research and education, connecting faculty and students across disciplines with shared infrastructure, collaborative research opportunities and industry partnerships.

That interdisciplinary approach supports UNT’s broader strategy to connect education and research more closely with the needs of Texas employers, giving students opportunities to work with emerging technologies while helping industry and communities navigate the changes those technologies are creating.

“Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how we work, conduct research and solve problems, and universities have an important responsibility to help shape what comes next,” said UNT President Harrison Keller, Ph.D. “The Anuradha and Vikas Sinha College of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics positions UNT to lead in that work. Vikas and Anu’s commitment will create new opportunities for our students and faculty to build, study and apply these technologies while advancing central priorities of our Look North: UNT 2030 strategic plan — reshaping how we prepare students for a changing labor market, accelerating interdisciplinary research and innovation, and creating enduring value for North Texas and the state.”

For Dean Kinshuk, the leader of the college, the breadth of the gift is especially important because it invests simultaneously in the people, ideas and infrastructure necessary to build a leading academic and research enterprise.

“What makes this gift extraordinary is that it gives us the ability to think bigger about every part of the student and faculty experience,” Kinshuk said. “We can connect students with emerging technologies and meaningful research, recruit and support outstanding faculty, create opportunities for entrepreneurship and build partnerships that move ideas beyond the university. Our goal is not simply to teach students how to use new technologies. We want them to understand them, question them and be prepared to shape what those technologies become.”

The college, in coordination with the Office of the Provost, is working to organize its academic programs into two complementary academic divisions. The college also will house a new interdisciplinary institute.

The Division of Applied Intelligence and Informatics will focus on building and deploying intelligent systems, including work in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science, advanced analytics and health informatics.

The Division of Information and Learning Applications will focus on how information and intelligent systems operate within human and institutional contexts, including information science, library science and learning technologies.

The Applied Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Institute will connect AI and analytics research and education across UNT, creating opportunities for interdisciplinary research, shared infrastructure, external research funding and partnerships with industry.

The institute also will strengthen UNT’s capacity to compete for research funding and expand the university’s research enterprise at a time of significant investment in Texas public research universities through the Texas University Fund. As a TUF-eligible institution, UNT has an opportunity to leverage philanthropic investment alongside state research funding to accelerate discovery, attract and retain leading faculty and create more research opportunities for students.

A growing relationship with UNT

For Vikas and Anuradha Sinha, the $20 million commitment builds on a relationship with UNT and in their own experience of the opportunities education can create for an international student building a life in America.

Vikas and Anu Sinha came to the United States from India to continue their education after each earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Sri Venkateswara University. They both also earned graduate degrees from Florida Atlantic University, with Vikas going on to Northwestern University before earning his Ph.D. from UNT in 2023. Vikas now serves as vice president of the Mainframe Software Division at Broadcom and has served on the UNT College of Information Leadership Board since 2023.

The Sinhas’ investment in UNT has grown alongside their involvement with the university. In 2024, they gave a gift establishing the Anuradha and Vikas Sinha Department of Data Science, along with endowments supporting scholarships, faculty, research and special initiatives. A year later, they made another major gift, creating the Sinha Innovation Lab for Data Science.

“Education has opened doors for us throughout our lives, and we want to hold those doors open for others,” Vikas said. “Education changed the trajectory of my life. When I came to America as an international student, someone invested in me before they knew what I might someday accomplish. That experience has stayed with me, and it is a large part of why Anu and I believe so strongly in what UNT can make possible for students — including those who may come here from another country carrying the same ambition and belief in education that we once did. For us, this gift is about paying that opportunity forward and recognizing that immigrants don’t simply participate in the American dream — they help build it.”

The Sinhas see their own story as one example of how the opportunities immigrants find in America can become opportunities they help create for others.

“International students come to our universities to learn, but their impact extends far beyond the degrees they earn,” Keller said. “They contribute ideas, build companies, create jobs, lead communities, and create opportunities for the generations who follow them. Vikas and Anu’s story is a powerful example of what can begin when a talented student chooses UNT.” 

For students who will someday study, conduct research and launch ideas in a college bearing their names, the Sinha story will be part of the institution they inherit — a reminder of how opportunity received can become opportunity created for others.

“Vikas and Anu have taken something they believe deeply in — the power of education to change lives — and built a legacy around extending that opportunity to others,” said Brandon Buzbee, UNT vice president for University Advancement. “Their relationship with UNT has continued to grow because their vision has continued to grow. This gift ensures that vision will keep creating opportunities long into the future.”

The Sinhas’ gift comes at a pivotal moment for UNT as the university strengthens connections among education, research and the rapidly evolving workforce needs of North Texas and the state.

It also demonstrates the role philanthropy can play in accelerating UNT’s strategic ambitions, pairing private support with growing public investment in research to create opportunities for students, advance discovery and develop the talent Texas will need for the industries of tomorrow.

UNT will mark this milestone with a university celebration later this year, bringing together the Sinha family, students, faculty, university leaders and community members to celebrate the college’s new name and look ahead to what this investment will make possible.