Hundzula Retreat 2023
By Vukosi Marivate
We kickoff the 2nd edition of the #HundzulaRetreat. We are here to Teach, Learn, Ideate and Support each other in bridging the gap between the Humanities and Mathematical/Computational sciences when it comes to language. Website: sites.google.com/view/hundzula-retreat/
#NLProc #Linguistics pic.twitter.com/yo5Z8Bp2Y0
We are thankful for the support of @AbsaSouthAfrica through the ABSA UP Chair of Data Science, @UPTuks, @SADiLaR_ZA and @TensorFlow ML grant.
We were lucky to have Dr George Mahashe, @UCT_news talk to us about the collaborative Khilobedu project he has been part of followed by Prof Zethu Cakata from @unisa who took us on a thoughtful journey of “Research Ethics processes and Epistemic wounds”. #HundzulaRetreat pic.twitter.com/VbbFJVALqU
Also just noted the #HundzulaRetreat 2023 started on the first day of #AFRICANLANGUAGESWEEK 2023. What a great coincidence. Tomorrow we look forward to deep dives in Linguistics
Day 2 of #HundzulaRetreat 2023. We have Prof Dion Nkomo (@Rhodes_Uni, @NRF_News ) Kicking us off giving us a Deep Dive of Linguistics in South Africa and what connections can be made to #NLProc pic.twitter.com/tBzO2Q9l97
We really need an #AfricanLanguageDataLiberationFront #ALDLF
So much African language data is put behind platforms or formats that discourage re-use, remixing or study.
The #ALDLF
Created with #midjourney, prompt “A picture of a diverse group of the The African Language Data Liberation Front programmers”
#AfricanLanguagesWeek #HundzulaRetreat pic.twitter.com/CPMYcEnI4K
Finishing off the morning with Tebogo Macucwa (@UPTuks and @theNWU ) who is taking us on a journey of the linguistic landscape of outdoor advertising in Pretoria. We are having a vibrant discussion on Setswana, Sepedi, Sesotho and #SiPitori.
#Hundzula pic.twitter.com/8qXe4Jnk2G
We are doing our first set of spotlight talks. Today is Linguistics day so we are experiencing the work of our colleagues from @CPUT (Alexa Anthonie) and @theNWU, @SADiLaR_ZA (Respect Mlambo).
#Loadshedding hit us today at #HundzulaRetreat but we move forward. pic.twitter.com/u07qKN3fhi
2 more spotlights from Mukhtar Raban and Johannes Sibeko from @MandelaUni. Leaning into Linguistics topics in South Africa
#HundzulaRetreat #AfricanLanguagesWeek pic.twitter.com/OY56uvhnF0
We are on day 3 of the 2023 #HundzulaRetreat. It is #NLProc #MachineLearning day.
I kicked off the day with a very quick, and accessible, introduction to #NLProc for all.
I love giving this talk. Going all the way from Bag-Of-Words to word-embeddings.
#AfricanLanguagesWeek pic.twitter.com/J45dvxFZ3v
Now @Jenalea_Rajab is taking the participants through #LargeLanguageModels
#AfricanLanguagesWeek #NLProc #HundzulaRetreat pic.twitter.com/izgcj9x8bc
This afternoon we have Febe De Wet from @theNWU who is taking us through a deep dive of Speech #NLProc #HundzulaRetreat pic.twitter.com/jfcMzzYlQF
#Loadshedding hit us but participants keep it moving. The Akanyang training area @UPTuks is such a great space that has allowed us to exploit natural light when needed and presenters have adjusted well.
#HundzulaRetreat #AfricanLanguagesWeek
And then enter #ChatGPT which has generated a lot discussion and much more questions that participants will grapple with. We asked it the pertinent “Should we stop funding the humanities?” question:
#HundzulaRetreat pic.twitter.com/GvOf63PR6a
The final day of an interesting week at the #HundzulaRetreat. Today we have of spotlight talks followed by a reflective discussion. Discussions/Talks with Asive Dlaba @TelkomZA, Thipe Modipa @ULvarsity, Muzi Matfunjwa @SADiLaR_ZA, Jenalea Rajab @WitsUniversity
@UPTuks as host. pic.twitter.com/9bnWD4J4pr
