Education | Research camp project to be presented in Beijing

The University of Macau’s (UM) Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH) recently hosted the Momento Boot Camp 2018, a one-month research camp gathering nearly 30 researchers from 11 regions.

According to the university, the research team worked together for one month on “Modelling Parameters of Cognitive Efforts in Translation Production in Relation to Translation Universals,” a project sponsored by UM’s Multi-year Research Grant.

The project seeks to develop an integrated cognitive model of the
translator’s mind based on empirical evidence, which is to be validated
through a range of parameters, using various approaches and tools.
The project is associated with a UM-wide cross- disciplinary research
project titled “Neuroscience, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence,”
which is led by vice rector (academic affairs) Lionel Ni.

When addressing the boot camp participants, Ni said that translation is an important subject at UM, while cognition and artificial intelligence are some of the niches UM is developing.

The participants have gone through the standard collaborative research process. conceptualization and planning, and have now reached the implementation stage. The next steps will be evaluation and dissemination.
Meanwhile, UM noted that progress has been made incorporating Asian languages into the system originally developed by European scholars.

Outcomes of the boot camp will be presented at the Fifth International Conference on Cognitive Research on Translation and Interpreting to be held at Renmin University, Beijing in November.

Li Defeng, director of the FAH’s Centre for the Studies of Translation, Interpreting and Cognition, believes that the boot camp and its results will help translation studies go beyond Eurocentrism.
The collaborating universities include Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
in Germany, Durham University in the United Kingdom, the Federal
University of Minas Geras in Brazil, the City University of London in the
UK, Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, and Renmin University of China.