Second-Year Vossie Creates Innovative Sign Language Recognition System.

Post by Eduvos, November 8, 2023.

Eduvos hosted its annual IT Showcase on the 28th of September, where second-year Data Science student, Tyron Lambrechts presented his project; a South African Sign Language Recognition System using a Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network. In this feature, Tyron talks to us about his Eduvos academic journey at our Tyger Valley campus and delves further into his innovative project.  

Why did you choose to study at Eduvos and your qualification? 
I initially heard about Eduvos when they came to my high school to talk about the institute and its offerings. I’d also heard some really good things from friends who graduated from Eduvos. I knew I was set on studying IT and based on the recommendations from various friends and the Eduvos graduates I knew, Eduvos is one of the best places to study IT. After reading through the qualifications and qualification structures I knew that this was the institute for me. I chose to specialise in Data Science, which stems from a deep love and passion for answering questions and finding innovative solutions. The ability to work with data and gain insights through rigorous analysis has always been my interest. I have quite ambitious career goals that I want to achieve, my mind is set on becoming an Artificial Intelligence Engineer or Machine Learning Engineer. I want to work in that field creating intelligent machines to further improve human life. Further down the line, I would love to start my own company specialising in creating AI solutions for companies. 

Can you explain your project to us and how you came about pursuing this direction?  
My project is a Long-Short Term Memory Neural Network that detects and translates South African Sign Language in real time to plain text. How it works is the system continuously monitors you through a camera, like my laptop webcam for example, and translates the phrases you show with your hands into plain English text for non-sign language speakers to understand. South African Sign Language (SASL) is the 12th recognised language in South Africa to assist individuals who are hearing-impaired and others. I have had numerous occasions where I've been unable to communicate with someone with impaired hearing as I have had no experience with Sign Language. 

How long has this project taken you? 
The Sign Language Translation project took me about two weeks to finish, the first week was more of a research week and reading up on literature that has attempted and tackled similar projects to this. In this first week, I created a project methodology and an approach which streamlined the overall creation of the project in the second week. The second week mainly involved me gathering data by physically standing in front of my webcam and showing the sign language phrases that I practised over and over in the first week. After the necessary data was collected the training and creation of the neural network took a day, but overall, the project took me two weeks. 

How did it feel to showcase your project and how was your experience? 
The opportunity to showcase and share my project with like-minded people and industry professionals was a big honour and such a fun occasion, people were extremely interested in my project and asked a lot of questions, which I really enjoyed answering as I put a lot of effort into the project. I also gained a lot of insight and recommendations for future improvements from various people who work and operate in different fields in the IT industry which was something I appreciated and valued a lot as it is not often that you get to be in such close contact with industry professionals who work in the field. I was also sponsored a brand-new webcam from The Computer Hardware Specialist and Pinnacle which was a highlight for me as it reassured me that the work I am doing is appreciated and it has motivated me to pursue and tackle even bigger goals. 

What aspects are unique to Eduvos that stand out to you? 
I have to say the biggest aspect that makes Eduvos unique is the effort they put into us as students. Eduvos really goes out of their way to make us more employable. Whether it is through the many workshops they regularly host or exposing us to industry professionals through events such as the IT showcase and Career Fairs. Eduvos puts a lot of effort into ensuring we as students are always happy and have good mental health, that is something I feel is unique to Eduvos as well. They have counsellors and workshops that help students deal and cope with the stress and any life-related problems that affect their ability to learn, it is one of the aspects of Eduvos that I appreciate. Eduvos is so much more than just an institution to learn, they really put an effort into building relationships with their students. 

If you’re looking to go into the field of IT, there is no better institution than Eduvos. Pre-enrol to start your academic journey in revolutionising technology in 2024. 

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