Talking Taiwan: Taliyah Huang: Young Inventor of Bobaway, Online Translator that Converts English to Taiwanese
Taliyah Huang is the creator of Bobaway, an online translator that converts English text into a Taiwanese audio clip. She is a sophomore studying biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. After months away at college Taliyah felt her Taiwanese was out of practice so she created Bobaway to get better at Taiwanese and converse fluently with her grandparents. In June she posted a YouTube video about how she created it. A lot has happened since then. She’s been interviewed by TaiwaneseAmerican.org and listed on the Taiwanese American Archives. Many generous donors have allowed her to continue running Bobaway and she’s purchased a domain for it so now you can use Bobaway at Bobaway.org.
[LISTEN to the Complete Episode HERE on APPLE PODCASTS or SPOTIFY]
She’s continuing to work on improvements and additional features for BobaWay, but at much slower pace now that she’s busy with school. If you want to support her development of Bobaway visit her website www.taliyahhuang.com.
Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:
What motivated Taliyah to create Bobaway
How Taliyah got interested in technology
Taliyah’s first invention was a contraption to clean her flute
How Taliyah presented her first invention to US Vice President Mike Pence
Taliyah’s background and upbringing
Taliyah’s relationship with her grandparents
Taliyah’s favorite phrases in Taiwanese
How Taliyah learned to program and code
What Taliyah enjoys most about being an engineer
How Taliyah installed 100 different libraries and made 17 attempts to create Bobaway
How long it took Taliyah to create Bobaway
Why Taliyah decided to make and post a YouTube video showing how she created Bobaway
How Taliyah wants to inspire other young women to be interested in technology and engineering
Why Taliyah thinks it’s important for women to other women in STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math)
What kept Taliyah going and how she was not able to give up on creating Bobaway
How long it took Taliyah to make the YouTube video about Bobaway
Where the name Bobaway comes from
What her parents and grandparents think about Bobaway
The attention and response that Bobaway has gotten
How Taliyah has been interviewed by Bao Dao Radio and Radio Taiwan and World Journal
How Taliyah grew up in California and is now on the East Coast attending Johns Hopkins University
Why Taliyah decided to attend Johns Hopkins and what it’s been like attending Johns Hopkins
Inventions that Taliyah is currently working on
Suggestions that Taliyah has gotten from people using Bobaway
Taliyah’s role models
How you can learn more about Taliyah and support her development of Bobaway
Related Links:
Taliyah Huang’s website: www.taliyahhuang.com
Taliyah’s Youtube video: Learn to speak the way of the Bobas! (台語): https://youtu.be/jH8sbQL_YpA
Taliyah Huang on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taliyahengineering/
Taliyah Huang on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taliyahengineering
Taliyah Huang’s listing on the Taiwanese American Archives:
https://taiwaneseamericanhistory.org/blog/my-stories-882/
How she built this: sophomore Taliyah Huang invents a Taiwanese-English translation tool to bridge language gaps: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2023/07/taliyah-huang-interview-bobaway/
Meta has developed an AI translator for a primarily-spoken language: https://mashable.com/article/meta-ai-oral-language-translation-hokkien-english
AI translates Hokkien, an unwritten language, for the first time: https://tech.facebook.com/artificial-intelligence/2022/10/ai-translation-unwritten-language/
Kristin McCoy-Ward: Everything About Bubble Tea from the “Boba Queen” (Episode 238): https://talkingtaiwan.com/kristin-mccoy-ward-everything-about-bubble-tea-from-the-bobba-queen-ep-238/
Bubble Tea Sam: From Quickly to Coco, Running Bubble Tea Shops for 20 Years in NYC (Episode 245): https://talkingtaiwan.com/bubble-tea-sam-from-quickly-to-coco-running-bubble-tea-shops-for-20-years-in-nyc-ep-245/
LISTEN to Episode 253: Taliyah Huang: Young Inventor of Bobaway, Online Translator that Converts English to Taiwanese HERE
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