The 21st International Federation of Translators Congress (FIT 2017) was held from August 3 to 5 in the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. Global Tone Communication Technology Co., Ltd. (GTCOM), as the exclusive strategic partner, sponsored the “Artificial Intelligence and Language Technology” forum on the afternoon of August 3, at which GTCOM Vice President Zhang Xiaodan signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Sean Cheng from the School of Humanities & Languages of the University of New South Wales (UNSW). This agreement will herald closer cooperation between GTCOM and Australian universities.
The signing ceremony
The International Federation of Translators (FIT), established in 1953, is an international grouping of associations of translators and interpreters. More than 120 professional associations and training institutes are affiliated, representing more than 60,000 translators in over 60 countries and regions. The FIT World Congress is held once every three years, and the theme for 2017 was “Disruption and Diversification”. About 100 experts and professionals met at the forum on the afternoon of August 3 to discuss how to reshape the language service industry by applying big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to translation instruction and research in the age of Internet.
At the forum, Sean Cheng shared the UNSW’s experience in applying language technology to translation projects. He said that the university began to offer CAT and machine translation (MT) courses in 2012, and believed the cooperation with GTCOM will speed up the application of MT and big data technologies to translation courses and help cultivate high-caliber professionals.
Sean Cheng's making speech
Founded in 1949, the UNSW is a top-notch university in the world and one of the Group of Eight in Australia, with its main campus based in Sydney, capital of New South Wales.