Research
Research and Higher Degrees
Two field-grounded research programmes, an Honours study localising technology for an oral community, and an ongoing Masters on offline voice reporting for pastoralists.
01HonoursBSc Computer Science Honours · 2025
Localising technology for an oral community
A mini-thesis co-designed with the Ovahimba of Otjisa: explaining a solar hydroponics system in Otjiherero by describing what its parts do, not by inventing words.
23.0
chrF++ on unseen English→Otjiherero
97.6 on trained sentences
74.7
chrF++ memorisation gap
trained → unseen
2,500
bilingual training pairs
deduped from 3,400+
ICISET
2026 paper
Springer ACSAR review
Complex English term→Gemma-7B simplification→NLLB-200 → Otjiherero→Image + spoken translation
V1 text-heavyExpert critiqueRe-analysis of role-play videoV2 "digital pointing"Field validation
Try the live Otjiherero model demo→
02MastersMaster of Computer Science · in progress
A voice for herders, offline
Working Master's research: an offline, on-device voice assistant that lets communal herders report livestock illness in Otjiherero and Rumanyo and hear answers back in their own language. No cloud, no signal.
OtjihereroRumanyo
2
languages on one assistant
Otjiherero + Rumanyo
53.53
chrF++ (Otjiherero)
up from 47.66
1198
MB on-device package
1904 → 1198 · target <800
129
participants in the field
Kavango East + Omaheke
Herder speaks Otjiherero / Rumanyo→On-device report → clinical English→Veterinarian replies→Spoken reply + same-day call-back
Reports, never diagnosesOn-device, no cloudSame-day call-backSpoken in-language replies
Live Research Sandbox
Neural Translation Model
Test fine-tuned low-resource neural translation between English, Otjiherero, and Rumanyo directly in your browser.
Open Model→
Selected work
Projects & products
Click a card to expand details on this page. Live links open the real systems. No source code.