By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
Lamin Abubakar, a third-year
Mechanical Engineering student at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and
Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, has completed an internship with the Responsible AI
Lab (RAIL), where he explored the use of artificial intelligence to translate
Ghanaian Sign Language directly into natural-language text.
His internship project
focused on gloss-free Ghanaian Sign Language translation using Vision
Transformers and Large Language Models. He explored how pretrained models such
as ViViT and Gemma could be adapted to translate sign language videos directly
into natural-language text.
Abubakar concluded his
internship by presenting his project to the RAIL team, sharing his approach and
findings with colleagues. The feedback and comments he received helped him
reflect on his methods and identify areas for further improvement.
Passionate about exploring
how AI can solve real-world problems, Abubakar is working towards growing his
knowledge and skills as an AI researcher.
He described his time at
RAIL as both rewarding and educational. Beyond the technical knowledge he
gained, he enjoyed collaborating with colleagues, exchanging ideas, discussing
challenges and learning from their different perspectives.
Presenting his work and
receiving constructive feedback also helped him grow in confidence and develop
a deeper appreciation for collaborative AI research.
RAIL congratulated Abubakar
on completing his internship and wished him continued success as he advances
his journey in AI research.
