[back]

CRULP is an organization devoted to promote Urdu and regional languages in Pakistan. Its main objectives are to promote and provide assistance in content development; conduct research and to participate in standardization efforts in Urdu and regional languages.

The work being undertaken in Phase II includes the localization of a range of open source software, including OpenOffice.org, SeaMonkey and NVU.  Training plans and material will also be developed and deployed at eight local schools, and the training will be evaluated to see if it has contributed to ICT access and web content development in local languages.

He has a BS in Computer Engineering (University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA, 1992), MPhil in Computer Speech and Language Processing (University of Cambridge, UK, 1993) and PhD in Speech Science/Linguistics (Northwestern University, 1997). He is currently a professor at National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Lahore Pakistan, where he is also the founding head of Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing and coordinates MS programs in Software Project Management and MS Computer Science (specialization in Script, Speech and Language Processing).

PAN Localization project is managed and administered at CRULP by the Regional Secretariat. The Secretariat is responsible for corresponding with the Regional Research Leaders and the Country Components for the finalization of project plans and their respective budgets. In addition, the Regional Secretariat is also responsible to contact the relevant authorities for legal and contractual formalities. Throughout the project, the Secretariat has been managing and evaluating the progress of Country Components. The relevant personnel have been in touch with the project teams to provide feedback, support and guidance for project related issues. Regional meetings and trainings have also been supported and arranged by Regional Secretariat to ensure proper communication across the wide spread teams.  

Dareecha is a project for determining and evaluating sustainable strategies for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) access and local language content generation in rural schools. The project covers a diverse range of activities including open source software localization in Urdu, training material development for the software, deployment of complete computer labs at eight rural area schools, training sessions for students at the schools and project monitoring and evaluation.