As part of the student’s projects, the Gyalpozhing College of Information Technology in Thimphu has developed 39 mobile applications and web-based services. They were displayed during the third project showcase event yesterday. From AI-powered Bhutanese sign language to voice interpretation to improving efficiency for recruitment of youth in Gyalsung and easing manual parking fee collections, students presented different kinds of ICT solutions to address real-life social issues.
Gesturefy; an AI-powered Bhutanese Sign Language to Text and Voice Interpreter is one of the projects.
The mobile application Gesturefy which is in the developing stage provides voice interpretation and text in just one word of the sign language shown in front of the mobile phone’s camera.
Once it is fully developed, it will have voice interpretation and text in sentences.
The app developers said it can become comprehensive if they are able to get all the Bhutanese sign language from sign language interpreters.
“The main goal or objectives of our project is to enable the deaf person to talk or interact and to let those people who have hearing and speaking impairment to express their feelings with us. And then the main focus of our project is to express their feelings while they visit the hospital because in Bhutan, currently we don’t have any hospital that is solely dedicated to people depending on sign language. So, that way they can express their pain and they get treatment as per their needs,” said Asseh Nepal, team representative of the AI-Powered Bhutan Sign Language to Voice System app.
Likewise, Gyalsung Smart Allocation Systems and Parking.bt are among other projects which is expected to resolve social issues through ICT.
“The Gyalsung Smart Education System is a system that we have built by inventing a smart algorithm to ensure that youth enrolled in Gyalsung are being allocated in the four different academies. We have taken in certain special criteria from the Gyalsung Headquarters, which include the skilling preferences, the capacity of the academy, as well as the diversity intake,” said Jigme Dema, team representative of Gyalsung Smart Allocation System.
“The main aim of this application is to enhance the parking system in Bhutan and to improve the vehicle monitoring system. In the current system, there are lots of challenges. There is financial loss due to the harsh weather. Bad weather negatively impacts the parking fee collectors’ performance. And there is some issue reported that some drivers are verbally or physically abusing the parking fee collectors,” said Tandin Jamtsho, team representative from Parking.bt.
“This project showcase is not only to showcase what our students have done for this semester or what work they have achieved but also to give our students the real-life experience of working with clients, working with industry projects and solving real-world problems for industries and our community and our nation and coming up with tech solutions for these problems that our nation faces,” said Tawmo, Associate Lecturer at GCIT.
Besides these, the third and final-year students have developed mobile applications and web-based services for the National Land Commission, hotels and a few ministries and agencies.
Sonam Dendup
Edited by Tshering Zam
