Kazakh students' project tops Abilities Expo in New York
Kazakhstani students' project earned high praise at the RESNA (Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America) competition held as part of the international Abilities Expo, Qazinform News Agency reports.
Zhan Amankeldy (KBTU, Kazakhstan) and Bogdan Mironov (Berea College, US) were guided by physics teacher Askhat Zhumabekov (one of the world’s top 50 teachers, 2018 Best Educator by the Kazakh Ministry of Education and Science) to create the free AI-based platform Kozha, which translates lectures, texts, and videos into sign language in real time.
The project’s scientific adviser, Askhat Zhumabekov, told Qazinform that securing a victory at the competition in New York is historic.
"This is the first team from Kazakhstan to reach this level. Our team is already in New York. It is not just the story of a single project, but the voice of Kazakhstan's youth, inclusive education, and the country's science. The expert jury highly rated their presentations and poster presentation on the second day. As a result, they won the grand prize — $1,000 — from the Joey Wallace Educational Scholarship Fund. Selected from dozens of countries, they ultimately took first place. It is a tremendous achievement for my students, and I am incredibly proud of them," said Askhat Zhumabekov.
More than 430 million people worldwide live with significant hearing loss. In Kazakhstan alone, there are over 5,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing children in school, yet there remains a critical shortage of qualified sign language interpreters.
That is precisely why Kozha is more than just an IT project. It is a bridge to equal opportunities, quality education, and fairness, and a real step toward accessible education for deaf and hard-of-hearing children.
As reported earlier, Kazakh scientists patented drought-resistant crops.