Many of us talk to our computers. Sameer Raj Maskey '02, a physics and math double major, is working to make his talk back in various languages. Maskey, a native of Nepal, is finishing work on the first ever text-to-speech software for the Nepali language, which will allow a computer to "speak" typed Nepali text.

"I had to speak a lot of sentences into the computer," Maskey says. His work included going through a 6,000-word Oxford dictionary in order to create a set of phonetic rules for the computer to follow. "You need to know what the real sounds of the words are," he explains, using the word "read" as an example by varying the pronunciation between past and present tense.

When finished, the program will be made free to the public through Carnegie Mellon University where Maskey did much of his work supported by several grants from Bates. Maskey also worked at the California Institute of Technology, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Auburn University.

Because of their high price, computers are scarce enough in Nepal that Maskey didn't use one until high school, but he visited a local cybercafe to get online and search for colleges. It was in the cybercafe where several Bates students studying abroad in Nepal noticed him e-mailing a friend about Bates and helped convince him to go.