Social Calendar of  "Summer School in Asian Language Processing"               

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PAN Localization Project Summer School Inaugural Dinner was held on 9th June, 2006 at Royal Palm Golf and Country Club. The training was inaugurated by Mr Abdul Aleem Khan, the Minister for Information Technology of the Government of Punjab. Eminent people from local software houses, research institutions, and various public and private universities from Lahore also participated in the event. These guests

represented Netsol, Al-Khuarzmi Institute of Computer Science at University of Engineering & Technology, Virtual University of Pakistan, ILM, LUMS, Beaconhouse National University and Punjab I.T. Department.
 

Dr. Sarmad Hussain, Project Leader of PAN Localization Project, began the proceedings by introducing the Project which is a collaboration between IDRC of Canada and FAST-NU Pakistan. He also highlighted the significance of the summer school in developing capacity of Asian regional trainees to work on advanced speech, script and language processing applications during the next phase of the project. He shared that the summer school is being attended by 35 participants from

12 countries. The trainees come from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. In addition trainers from Germany, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, and U.S.A. have also been invited.
 

Dr. Amir Muhammad, the Rector of FAST-NU, warmly welcomed the guests on behalf of the university and elaborated on the achievements that the university had done in the past. The Rector also praised the work being carried out by the PAN Localization project to promote local language computing, and stressed on the need to do so in the current day and age. He commended CRULP as a center that has largely contributed to the promotion of a research  culture in the

university. He also thanked IDRC for supporting this important project for the developing Asian countries.
 

Mr Abdul Aleem Khan, the Minister of Information Technology for the Government of Punjab, acclaimed the work being done by the PAN Localization Project. He said the government appreciated the importance of local language processing in making developing countries technologically sound. He also spoke of plans for the continuing support that would be provided by the federal and provincial government for promotion of computer education and training.
 

Dr. Purev Jaimai, the Head of the IT department at the National University of Mongolia, spoke of the significance of the training, as well as the value of regional collaboration in the development of local language standards and applications. He said this area of research was relatively new for Mongolia and thanked the organizers for inviting a team of five Mongolians at this training. He further added that this summer school will be extremely useful for them to develop solution for Mongolian language.
 

A member of the Cambodian development team, Ms. Pich Hemy Ros, also spoke about the creditable work being done by the project, and how she was enjoying her trip to Pakistan. She commented on the demanding level of course work being taught in the summer school, and also said that she was gaining a lot of valuable knowledge to take back with her for the next stage of the project.