March 4, 2025 – Jamshoro: A pivotal meeting was held between Mr. Amar Fayaz Buriro, Director of Abdul Majid Bhurgri Institute of Language Engineering (AMBILE), and Professor Dr. Khalil-Ur-Rehman Khoumbati, Vice Chancellor of the University of Sindh, at the Vice Chancellor’s office. The agenda of the meeting focused on fostering collaboration in research on Sindhi language and computational linguistics, aiming to develop robust Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools for the advancement of Sindhi language.
During the discussion, Professor Dr. Khalil-Ur-Rehman Khoumbati assured that an official Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the University of Sindh and AMBILE will soon be finalized. The MoU will enable the selection of students from the Sindhi and Computer Science departments to receive specialized training at AMBILE. These students will actively participate in projects related to Sindhi NLP tools, WordNet, and the expansion of Sindhi Large Language Models (LLMs) to meet the growing challenges of artificial intelligence.
Responding to a request from Mr. Amar Fayaz Buriro, the Vice Chancellor invited Dr. Kamran Dahri from the IT department to discuss the integration of Sindhi language into the university’s digital infrastructure. It was decided that a subdomain featuring a Sindhi-language user interface (UI) for the official website of the University of Sindh will be developed and launched next month. This platform will serve as a repository for research articles, theses, and final-year projects of Sindhi department students, contributing significantly to the growth of Sindhi textual resources available online. These resources will play a crucial role in training Sindhi LLMs and furthering AI-based language applications.
Recognizing the urgent need to sensitize students of Sindhi and Computer Science departments about AI and NLP advancements, the meeting concluded with a decision to conduct a lecture series in the coming weeks. Mr. Amar Fayaz Buriro will lead these lectures, guiding students on the essential steps required to modernize Sindhi language applications in the AI era. Furthermore, the meeting underscored the importance of developing an online database for speech-to-text and text-to-speech applications. These projects will be supported by community-donated voice datasets, with student-driven initiatives playing a crucial role in this developmental endeavor.
Both parties agreed that universities serve as the backbone of academic research, and this research must translate into tangible, result-oriented projects. The University of Sindh reaffirmed its commitment to playing a central role in Sindhi language research across all linguistic dimensions. The findings of this research will be shared with institutions dedicated to the advancement and preservation of Sindhi, especially within the field of artificial intelligence.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Amar Fayaz Buriro presented AMBILE’s latest newsletters to Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. Khalil-Ur-Rehman Khoumbati. The meeting ended with a strong commitment to joint efforts between AMBILE and the University of Sindh, ensuring a bright future for young researchers and the preservation and promotion of Sindhi, a vital linguistic heritage of the Indus Valley Civilization.