AI Expo Nepal 2019: Nepal’s First and Biggest AI Expo Successfully Conducted!

You may not realize it, but Artificial Intelligence is all around us.” – Judy Woodruff

AI Expo 2019 was held successfully on August 24, 2019, on Soaltee Crowne Plaza. Furthermore, the event was organized by Fusemachines in close partnership with Artificial Intelligence for Development (AID). Moreover, the objective to showcase the best AI projects, papers, and ideas from the academia and industry was a complete success.

The event featured a keynote speech from Dr. Sameer Maskey, two-panel discussion with industry experts, along with several different AI projects and idea presentation. Plus, the learning session also highlighted on AI’s fundamental concepts (like Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Computer Vision, and Natural Language Processing) to the general public.

If you are interested to learn more about AI, you can enroll in Micro degree in Artificial Intelligence via a course prepared by Fusemachines AI Center. In short, you can be an AI Engineer in just 12 months! For more information, you can visit the Fusemachines AI Center at Society Complex, Hattisar. Or contact via kathmadu@fuse.ai and +9779802026737.

AI Expo Nepal 2019: My Impressions

First Half

We, at TechLekh, got an invitation to AI Expo Nepal 2019 which happens to be the first-ever Biggest AI Expo in Nepal. Honestly, we were pretty excited over this amazing opportunity to witness history. Additionally, we got a schedule ahead of the event, which highlighted the things to come.

The better half of the morning was spent on Keynote Address by Dr. Sameer Maskey, Founder & CEO of Fusemachines. Moreover, it was followed by another address by Mr. Mahendra Man Gurung, Secretary of Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

Likewise, the event continued with two Plenary Discussion on two different topics, “Integrating AI” and “AI for National Development”, which was very enlightening, to say the least! Afterward, there was an address by Honorable Minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel, Ministry of Education.

We got a little lunch break, marking the end of first-half of the event. So far, the event was building up to be a great one! During the break, I decided to take a quick tour of the Exhibition Hall, highlighting different AI-related projects created by students from different walks of life.

Among the many interesting projects, one caught my eye!

Real-Time Vehicle Tracking and Recognition (RTVTR) is a brainchild of Inspiring Labs Pvt. Ltd. As the name says, it comes with the ability to track and recognize vehicles along with its number plate in real-time!

As it shouldn’t come as a surprise, RTVTR project was one of the winning projects at the event! Obviously, there was a live presentation and demonstration for all the pessimistic minds out there, which made it all the more impressive.

Second Half

After lunch, there was a short learning session which highlighted the fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence. Moreover, it was followed by three winner presentation.

Real-Time Vehicle Tracking and Recognition (RTVTR)
GhumGham: Landmark Detection using Deep Neural Network
Polyphonic Music Generation with RNN

Finally, we reach the end of the event. Award Ceremony, Closing Remarks by Mr. Kshitiz Rimal, Head of Research at AID, and Photo Session marked the end of the AI Expo.

I think the event was a huge success with reported 2000+ unique visitors which allowed everyone to explore the idea of AI in Nepal. All in all, the event was a slamming success!

We’ll share some of our experiences through a gallery. In my personal opinion, 5/7 would visit again! Although, I still somewhat feel that “Exhibition” part, should’ve been the highlight of the event. Maybe, next time?