Machine learning expert Alan Stuart Edelman will mentor young Bangladeshi programmers to develop new technologies through Artificial Intelligence (AI).

 Edelman, father of the programming language Julia, is a professor of applied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

He made a keynote presentation at a session titled “AI and Machine Learning” at the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) SoftExpo2018 at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the capital on Saturday.

“The dependence on Google is not good for young developers. They should focus on developing services and products through innovation. Julia will support them to implement their innovation in programming,” he said.

Speaking as chief guest at the seminar, the minister for posts, telecommunications and information technology, Mustafa Jabbar, said: “Bangladesh has experienced a tremendous growth in the ICT industry thanks to the participation of people from all walks of lives. Youths lead the innovations here. They are interested in new technologies like machine learning.”

Prof. Jamilur Reza Choudhury, vice-chancellor of the University of Asia Pacific, said machine learning was not a new concept, but some initiatives regarding artificial intelligence had recently started in Bangladesh. “We should focus on developing programming languages in Bangla to make machine learning easier,” he added.

Mascagni senior expert Prof. Samdani said machine learning was the starting point for future technologies.

BASIS president Syed Almas Kabir said that the association engaged Prof. Edelman as an adviser for the development of the technology sector in Bangladesh.

This year's expo was divided into four categories: there were A software services exhibition zone, innovative mobile service zone, digital commerce zone, and ITES and BPO zone. The four-day fair ended yesterday in the capital.    

The companies that collected CVs during the Career Camp session at the SoftExpo were Mfasia, Nerd Castle, ADN Group, Bagdoom.com, Radisson Digital Technologies Ltd, Magnus Corporation Ltd, Babylon Resources, SSL Wireless, Cloud Solution Ltd and Leadsoft Bangladesh Ltd.