Bangla Language and Research on Bangla Language Processing: Its Motivation and Impact!
Bangla, also known as Bengali, is the language of more than 250 million people, the majority of whom live in Bangladesh and the Indian State of West Bengal, making it the 5th/6th most widely spoken language in the world. Research on Bangla Language Processing (BLP) possibly had started 10-15 years back, but progress in the past has been difficult because resources were not readily available. A few years ago, the Center for Research on Bangla Language Processing (CRBLP) of BRAC University was established under the leadership of Professor Mumit Khan.
In this talk, I will start by giving background of Bangla Language, then I will show some projects of CRBLP, including some of my previous work. I will conclude my presentation with the motivation for working on BLP and the impact of research on BLP. As a developing country with only 41% literacy rate and 35% of the population living under $1 per day, Bangladesh could benefit enormously from the availability of advanced NLP tools.
I also hope to draw attention to attention to the tenth International Mother Language Day, celebrated on February 21.