PROJECT OVERVIEW:
African DataScientia (AfriDataScientia) project is the African sub-project of the (global) DataScientia project < DataScientia – Unitas per Varietatem (unitn.it) >, under the leadership of Prof Fausto Giunchiglia, of the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, University of Trento, Italy. DataScientia is a consortium of several institutional collaborating partners worldwide. DataScientia stands for “Scientia per Data”, the Latin text for “knowledge through data”. The vision of DataScientia is “Unity through Diversity”, translation for the Latin phrase, “Unitas per Varietatem”, seeking to reach the Unity of Knowledge by understanding through the Diversity of Data. The DataScientia mission is to enable ethical research and innovation, informed and driven by diversity-aware unitary data about language, knowledge, and human behaviour, as a step towards a better and more inclusive society. Among the ethos of DataScientia embraced in AfriDataScientia are, that Knowledge should:
● properly record the diversity of the world, as we see it, in time and space, as well as the many diverse representations of the world itself, as they result from the local culture, needs, and purpose;
● be written in the local language, and it should record those facts that are locally relevant with the format and values which are most appropriate; and;
● enable the coordination of the local manifestations of diversity, thus allowing for the construction of progressively more unitary representations of the world.
The vision, mission, and knowledge ethos, of the DataScientia, resonate well with the Africa context of multilingualism and linguistic and cultural diversity, that needs to be harnessed for the socio-economic development of the continent. Hence, the AfriDataScientia project is conceived as the African sub-project of the global DataScientia project
Aims:
To develop a sustainable Multilingual Diversity-aware African Indigenous Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure available as-a-service
To create a critical mass of African individuals with the capacity for AfrILs research, innovation and commercialization.
Objectives:
● To advance knowledge in AfrIL Science, Engineering, and Technology and Digital Humanities in the global arena
● To develop multilingual AfrIL lexical resources base made accessible as-a-service
● To develop AfrILT tools and applications made accessible as-a-service
● To provide AfrILT Education and Training Programme as-a-service for short—and long-term human Capital Development
● To create a collaborative and partnership platform for continuous AfriDataScientia stakeholder’s engagement
More Details in https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BtYxWmVpmy4mDo9SPcSq-87FVZnWdfau/view?usp=sharing