Category Events
Event Date 27-08-2015
Place Al-Khwarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS), University of Engineering & Technology (UET), Lahore

CLE  in collaboration with Ignite (Formerly National ICT R&D Fund), Ministry of Information Technology, Government of Pakistan is pleased to host a one-day workshop as per the following details:

Date:  August 27, 2015

Time:   9:00 to 5:00 PM

Venue:  Seminar Room, Al-Khwarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS),
University of Engineering & Technology (UET), Lahore

Locally relevant content online has potential to improve the socio-economic opportunities, address local governance issues, enhance educational outcomes and enrich indigenous cultural representation of local communities. Gaps in linguistic research, computing standards, end-user tools continue to pose a significant barrier for these communities across Pakistan to produce, communicate, and use resources in local language both online and through mobile platforms. With more than 60 languages spoken in Pakistan, a comprehensive and coordinated national effort is needed to mature ICTs to a level where they can be effectively used for empowering these communities.

Topics:

  1. Importance of relevant local language content.
  2. Human Language Technology (HLT) for facilitating access to local language content.
  3. HLT for promoting generation of relevant local language content.
  4. Access of local content by people with disabilities.
  5. Role of local language content in promoting languages of Pakistan, especially preservation of languages in danger.

This workshop will bring together local language and technology experts, researchers, practitioners, ICT experts and other stakeholders to discuss different strategies for development of local language content in robust and cost effective manner.

 Program:

Time Talk Speaker
9:00 AM to 9:10 AM Welcome & Introduction Ignite (Formerly National ICT R&D Fund) and CLE
9:15 AM to 9:25 AM Importance & Need for Relevant Local Dr. Qasim Bugio,
Language Content Pakistan Academy of Letters, GoP
9:30 AM to 9:40 AM Content Generation and Dissemination from Mr. Tayyab Aijaz
Publishing Industry Perspective Managing Editor, Urdu Digest
9:45 AM to 9:55 AM Challenges for Disseminating Publically
Produced Data Ministry of Law, Govt. of Punjab
10:00 AM to 10:10 AM Content Access Need and Challenges for Ms. Ammara Anwar & Mr. Ali Tahir
People with Disabilities Pakistan Foundation for Fighting Blindness
10:15 AM to 10:25 AM Need for Preservation & Promotion of Mr. InamUllah, President
Languages in Danger Mother Tongue and Heritage for Education and
Research (MOTHER)
10:30 AM to 11:00 AM Tea
11:00 AM – 11:10 AM Model Applications for Promoting Local Dr. Hassan Sajjad & Dr. Nadir Durrani
Language Content: QCRI perspective Qatar Computing Research Center
11:15 AM – 11:25 AM E-governance and Local Language Content Mr. Waqar Naeem Qureshi
Director General, Punjab IT Board
11:30 AM to 11:40 AM Multi-Modal Interfaces and Channels for Dr. Agha Ali Raza
Access of Local Language Content Information Technology University
11:45 AM to 12:15 PM HLTs for Access, Generation & Dissemination Dr. Sarmad Hussain
of Local Language Content: A National Center for Language Engineering,
Perspective KICS – UET
12:15- 1:00 1.   Focus Group on Access of Local Facilitators:
Language Content and HLTs Dr. Sarmad Hussain &
2.   Focus Group on Generation and Mr. Ali Iqbal
Dissemination of Local Language
Content and HLTs
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM Lunch
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM Discussion Continued
3:00PM to 3:30 PM Reports on Local Language Content Access, Generation and Dissemination and HLTs
3:30 PM to 3:45 PM Tea
3:45 PM to 4:30 PM Panel on Panelists:
Next Steps for Local Language Content Dr. Nasrullah Wazir,
Access, Generation and Dissemination Pashto Academy, Peshawar
Dr. Muhammad Afzal, KICSIT
Dr. Tafseer Ahmed,
DHA Suffa University, Karachi