About ILPRL

Information and Language Processing Research Lab (ILPRL), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Kathmandu University

Background

The Information and Language Processing Research Lab (ILPRL) at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Kathmandu University was founded in the year 2004. The lab was found on the wake of the PAN Localization Project, http://panl10n.net, a multi-national localization Project that was conducted in 11 countries and 22 partners of South and South East Asia. Kathmandu University was a collaborating partner along with Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP) representing the Nepal Country component. The PAN localization project was a forerunner in the domain of Software Localization and Natural Language Processing in Nepal and the participating countries.

Projects conducted under or in collaboration the ILPRL lab

  1. NepaLinux Project [2004 -2009]

The Project involved localizing the Debian-based Linux distribution into Nepali. Besides a fully localized interface for an operating system along with several useful applications in Nepali, it also included a Nepali spellchecker and a Thesaurus.

  • Dobhase Project [2005 – 2006]

This was a first ever web-based English to Nepali Machine Translation Project. ILPRL lab, KU was the main partner whereas MPP was the collaborating partner to the Project.

  • E-Gov and Trust Issues [2010 – 2012]

The Project was one of the first institutional grants awarded by the University Grants commission to the School of Engineering, Kathmandu University. It looked into the trust and e-readiness issues in the implementation of e-government in Nepal.

  • Opinion Mining Project [2012 – 2014]

It was another institutional grant awarded by the University Grants commission to the School of Engineering, Kathmandu University. It laid a foundation in building resources for Opinion Mining or Sentiment Analysis in Nepal. One PhD thesis and several Masters dissertations were developed under Sentiment Analysis in the lab.

  • Nepali OCR Project – Phase I [2016-2017]

This Project is a major milestone in the Nepali OCR, an endeavor to convert Nepali text documents in the image format (pdf, jpg, bmp, png etc.) into editable format. The developed software currently performs with an accuracy of above 90 %. It was conducted in collaboration with the ILPRL lab, KU and the Nepal Association of Blind (NAB), Nepal. The Project was supported by the Direct Aid Program, Australian Embassy to Nepal.

  • Nepali Text-to-Speech (TTS) Project [2017-2018]

This is an ongoing Project being conducted in collaboration with ILPRL, KU and NAB, Nepal. The Project will deliver a Nepali TTS software which will interface with the screen reading software (NVDA) with a natural sounding Nepali voice. The Project is being supported by the Kadoorie Charity Foundation, Hong Kong.

  • Nepali OCR Project – Phase II [2017 -2018]

After the successful completion of the Nepali OCR Project – Phase I, we have again been awarded this Project which is Phase II for porting the developed Nepali OCR software in the mobile version.

The Project is a continued collaboration between ILPRL lab, KU and NAB, Nepal. The Project is supported by the Direct Aid Program, Australian Embassy to Nepal.

  • Popularity Tracking and Trend Analysis of Named Entities and Political Figures in News Media – [2017 – 2019]

This Project is a Faculty Research Grant awarded by the University Grants Commission and aims to build a computational model to track the popularity and trend analysis of named entities and political figures in news media texts. With just Google Trends as the most similar project in the given domain, this Project holds significant novelty and research value not just within Nepal but globally as well.

With about 13 years of research excellence in the field of Software Localization and Natural Language Processing, ILPRL lab represents itself as a leading institution not only in Nepal but in the region itself. We have been working in close ties with prominent researchers and research organizations around the globe. The lab has been regularly hosting MS by Research candidates at Kathmandu University. The current focus is on Data Science and Analytics with significant engagement of state-of-the-art technologies like Machine/Deep Learning.

For further details, please kindly contact:

Dr. Bal Krishna Bal
Associate Professor
Information and Language Processing Research Lab
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Kathmandu University
Dhulikhel, Kavre
Nepal

Email: bal@ku.edu.np

Home Page: https://ku.edu.np/contact-detail/48