Limitless wins 2022 Global Good Award – Monash Action Lab x IFRC Solferino Academy
Action Lab researchers from Monash University’s Faculty of Information Technology and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Solferino Academy have won Silver in the 2022 Global Good Awards for their project Limitless.
Limitless is an international youth innovation program that creates greater opportunities for participants to develop solutions to COVID-19 issues in their local communities. They then share their ideas with people around the world and receive professional development to implement them.
The Global Good Awards is the leading independent international award scheme that recognises all businesses, non-government organisations, charities and social enterprises that drive positive social and environmental change. The COVID-19 Crisis Champions category, in which Limitless won Silver, celebrates organisations that have gone above and beyond to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.
‘On behalf of the team, we are honoured to be receiving this award. Not only does this achievement demonstrate the impact of our work, it also broadcasts it to a wider audience which I hope will inspire others to get more involved with local pandemic recovery efforts,’ said Dr Tom Bartindale, lead for Limitless and Senior Lecturer at Action Lab.
‘It’s wonderful to receive this recognition for an initiative that at its heart was trying to help young people – many of whom were facing very dire circumstances under the pandemic – bring their passion and ideas to life and make a positive impact in their communities. Partnering with Action Lab allowed us to efficiently reach a large number of people with advanced digital solutions, including many who couldn’t normally access such an opportunity.” said Shaun Hazeldine, Head of IFRC Solferino Academy.
Action Lab designed and developed the program including Action Translate, a novel multilingual translation technology leveraging expertise from the Monash Intercultural Lab. Action Translate combines the power of machine learning technologies with the knowledge of translation students from Monash University's Faculty of Arts to translate text-based and multimedia content.
Participants of Limitless were invited to create short form videos outlining the challenges they faced in their communities, their proposed solutions and resources required. Through Action Translate, these videos were able to be translated into 17 languages – enabling worldwide distribution.
‘The expertise of Arts students proficient in languages other than English helped create a truly accessible multilingual platform and this illustrates the powerful role translation plays in widening participation and facilitating the circulation of information’ said Dr Leah Gerber, Senior Lecturer in Translation and Interpreting Studies.
The World Health Organisation funded program received over 1000 applications from 72 countries, and 333 projects were funded to develop their ideas into more advanced prototypes. Of these, 10 teams were shortlisted and then invited to present their findings to the General Assembly in Geneva in June 2022, following which the general public could vote for their favourite.
The Limitless team from Action Lab includes Dr Tom Bartindale, Joshua Seguin, Harrison Marshal and Professor Patrick Olivier. The Arts PhD students involved in the training videos were Tristan Yu, Abdulrahman Aljammaz, Eliza Nicoll and Cristina Savin. Learn more about the project.