IIT-Bombay launches ‘Project Udaan’

With an aim to break the language barrier that many students face when they join institutes of higher education, IIT-Bombay today launched ‘Project Udaan’, that enables translation of textbooks and other study material related to engineering and other streams. 

The virtual inauguration, which coincided with Hindi Diwas, was attended by Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Dr. Krishnaswamy Vijay Raghavan as the chief guest.

Key Highlights

• The project, envisaged by Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Institute Chair Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay, is a donation based project. Prof. Ganesh and his team have built an Artificial Intelligence-based translation ecosystem, which can help translate engineering textbooks and learning materials in one-sixth the time it would take for a team consisting of domain and linguistic experts working manually. 
• According to a press release, translation of text books in other educational domains will be taken up in due course.
• This software —Project Udaan — can translate engineering textbooks and learning material in one-sixth the time it would take for a team of domain and linguistic experts to work manually.
• However, Gopakumaran Thampi, principal of Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, Bandra, who was not involved with the work, said while the concept is keeping in mind the new National Education Policy (NEP) provisions giving aid to regional languages, the use of the software might be limiting.

SOURCE: Hindustan Times

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