Indian-origin couple donates $20 million for new US college, to be named after them

Indian-origin couple Anuradha and Vikas Sinha have donated $20 million to the University of North Texas to establish a new AI and advanced analytics college. The college will serve as a major academic and research hub.

In Short

• Anuradha and Vikas Sinha donate $20 million to University of North Texas
• New college to be established and named after the India-origin couple
• College to focus on AI, data analytics, cybersecurity, health informatics

Indian-origin couple Anuradha and Vikas Sinha have donated 20 million dollars to the University of North Texas to establish the College of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics in order to strengthen its education and research in the field. The university has announced that the new college will be named the Anuradha and Vikas Sinha College of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics to honour the couple.

The college will serve as a major academic and research hub, bringing together programmes and research in artificial intelligence, data analytics, cybersecurity, health informatics, information science and learning technologies. The donation will also create six permanent endowments to support scholarships, professorships, college leadership, entrepreneurship and incubation, advanced research and emerging technologies.

Vikas Sinha, who earned his doctorate in information science from UNT in 2023, said universities have a crucial role in preparing students for a future increasingly shaped by AI.

"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," he said, as quoted by FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth.

He added that the contribution was also shaped by their own experience as immigrants and students in the US.

"For us, this gift is about paying that opportunity forward and recognising that immigrants don't simply participate in the American dream, they help build it."

A DECADE OF SUPPORT FOR EDUCATION

The donation builds on the couple's previous support for University of North Texas's data science programmes. In 2024, they helped establish the Anuradha and Vikas Sinha Department of Data Science, followed by a major contribution in 2025 that created the Sinha Innovation Lab for Data Science.

The couple moved to the US after completing bachelor's degrees in civil engineering at Sri Venkateswara University in India. They later pursued graduate studies at Florida Atlantic University, while Vikas Sinha went on to study at Northwestern University before completing his doctorate at UNT.

He is now vice president of the Mainframe Software Division at Broadcom and has served on the UNT College of Information Leadership Board since 2023.

"Education has opened doors for us throughout our lives, and we want to hold those doors open for others," Sinha said.

NEW COLLEGE TO DRIVE RESEARCH

According to FOX 4 News, the new college is expected to operate through two academic divisions. One will focus on developing and deploying intelligent systems, while the other will examine how information and intelligent systems function in human and institutional settings.

UNT will also establish the Applied Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Institute, designed to connect research and teaching across disciplines while encouraging industry partnerships and external funding.

University President Harrison Keller said the college supports UNT's wider strategy of adapting to rapid changes in technology, employment and research. The university plans to hold a campus celebration for the naming of the new college later this year.

Founded in 1890, as the Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute by Joshua C. Chilton, the University of North Texas has evolved from a modest private institution housed above a downtown Denton hardware store into one of the largest public research universities in the US.

- Ends