Ontario Tech Students Rank in Top Five at National Competition for Offline Indigenous Language Platform

A team of Ontario Tech University students placed in the top five at the Design for Change pitch competition at Wilfrid Laurier University, according to Ontario Tech University. The university reported that more than 400 students from across Canada took part in the event.

The student group, consisting of Anupriya Dubey, Nishtha Desai, and Mosarrat Rumman, developed an AI-powered education platform called EduLine. According to the team, the project was designed to work offline and provide educational resources to communities with limited internet access, with a particular emphasis on supporting Indigenous language preservation and coding education.

Anupriya Dubey, a fourth-year Computer Science student, said the team focused on the challenges of limited internet connectivity in rural parts of Canada and the urgent need to preserve Indigenous languages. Mosarrat Rumman, a master's degree candidate in Computer Science, stated that the team members’ diverse academic backgrounds helped them address the competition's challenges from multiple perspectives. The team reported that they worked with experts at the National Research Council of Canada while developing the project.

Team member Nishtha Desai said their key technical challenge was creating an efficient AI model capable of functioning without high-end hardware or a steady internet connection.

Competition judges commented that the project addressed access issues in remote and northern communities and responded to risks faced by underserved Indigenous populations. The judges also recognized the team’s research into connectivity barriers and their consideration of ethical research practices during development. In their project description, the Ontario Tech team described EduLine as a tool to address technology limitations and support the preservation of Indigenous languages.