If more engineering college students take up Tamil computing as part of their six-month project, Tamil will have far reaching presence on the Internet, Founder-Chair, International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil ((INFITT) and former Anna University Vice-Chancellor M. Anandakrishnan said here on Friday.
Addressing the 17th Tamil Internet Conference at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, he said engineering students at the graduate and post-graduate levels submitted around 5,000 theses a year, as part of their six-month project.
Even if 10 % of the theses was related to Tamil computing, the presence of Tamil in Internet would be more widespread.
Today, research was necessary in natural language processing, machine learning, Tamil in Android, Tamil in hand-held devices and other areas. The theme of the Conference, 'Tamil search engines for the Internet', was a necessary step forward in that direction.
Preferential treatment
The students who wanted to take up projects in Tamil computing need not be apprehensive as the experience was that software companies gave preferential treatment in recruitment to those students who had taken up such projects, he also said quoting the experience of senior academic and INFITT Founder-Chair M. Ponnavaiko.
Tamil Nadu Government's new textbooks for classes I, VI, IX and XI were revised and several information technology elements had been introduced, T. Udhayachandran, Secretary, Syllabus, School Education Department, said.
At the end of each chapter, the Government had introduced web links, quick response (QR) code and several elements that would take students to national education portal, Google Art&Culture and other such websites where they could access additional learning material.
Such elements had put the new textbooks among the best in the country and even schools following other education boards were buying copies of these.
Support
Mr. Udhayachandran also assured the organisers of the State Government's support to take forward Tamil computing.
The INFITT (Uthamam) had set up a five-member committee to co-ordinate activities of Tamil computing that took place world-over with governments, the organisation's chair Appasamy Murugaiyan said.
Though a brainchild of the Tamil diaspora, INFITT would balance the interests and needs of Tamils living abroad and also in the State.
K. Kalyanasundaram of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, recalled the journey of Tamil computing, and said the three-day conference at the university would have workshops, paper presentations, open forums for the members of public and an exhibition as well.
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Vice-Chancellor K. Ramasamy spoke on the need for increasing the use of Tamil in professional education.
The university and INFITT are holding the conference with support from the Government of Tamil Nadu, Central Institute of Indian Languages and Kumaraguru College of Technology.
