Ìmọ̀dòtun AI
Ìmọ̀dòtun AI
Preserving Wisdom. Empowering Generations.
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About the Platform

Knowledge That Lives
Beyond Generations

Ìmọ̀dòtun AI is an academic project by Ede Polytechnic dedicated to building a permanent, AI-powered digital home for all forms of Indigenous Knowledge from communities across Nigeria — preserving what must never be lost.

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African academic researcher

"Indigenous Knowledge is not a relic of the past — it is a living, breathing system of wisdom that communities have refined over centuries. Ìmọ̀dòtun AI exists to ensure it is never lost."

— Ìmọ̀dòtun AI Project Charter, Ede Polytechnic 2025
By the Numbers

The Scope of What We're Building

0
Nigerian Languages
Supported at Launch
0
Indigenous Knowledge
Categories
100%
Community Consent
& Cultural Integrity
0
Week Build
Timeline
Ancient manuscripts
Centuries of Knowledge
Being digitized for the first time
Our Story

Why Ede Polytechnic Built This

Across Nigeria, thousands of manuscripts, oral histories, medicinal practices, and cultural traditions exist only in fragile physical form or in the memories of aging community elders.

When these materials are lost — to fire, flood, decay, or time — they are lost forever. No library, no government archive, no museum has been able to solve this problem at scale. Ede Polytechnic saw an opportunity to use modern AI to close this gap, starting with manuscripts and academic research papers as the first content type, and building an infrastructure that can grow to support all forms of indigenous knowledge.

The platform was designed from the ground up with community consent and cultural integrity as non-negotiables — not afterthoughts. Every archived item carries documented permission and Traditional Knowledge (TK) labels before it ever becomes public.

See How the AI Works
The Institution

Ede Polytechnic & Indigenous Research

Situated in Ede, Osun State — a city with deep Yorùbá cultural heritage — Ede Polytechnic is uniquely positioned to lead this initiative.

The polytechnic serves a community where indigenous knowledge is still actively practiced and valued — from traditional governance to artisanal craft, from oral history to traditional medicine. This makes the institution not just an academic home for this project, but a genuine stakeholder in its success.

Ìmọ̀dòtun AI is both an academic deliverable and a real contribution to the community the polytechnic serves. It is designed to be replicable — a model that other Nigerian and African institutions can adopt to preserve their own indigenous knowledge systems at scale.

Based in Ede, Osun State
Heart of Yorùbá cultural heritage, in the home community of some of Nigeria's richest indigenous traditions
Academic Rigour
Built to world-class academic benchmarks — evaluated against F1, BLEU, BERT, SUS scores and cultural integrity metrics
Community Partnership
Developed in partnership with community stakeholders, ensuring every decision respects cultural ownership and consent
University campus
Academic Framework

How We Measure Success

Ìmọ̀dòtun AI is evaluated against five measurable academic objectives — each tied to internationally recognized metrics in AI, information retrieval, and user experience research

Indexing Accuracy (F1 Score) ≥ 0.80
Translation BLEU Score ≥ 25
Translation BERT Score ≥ 0.85
TK Label Coverage ≥ 90%
Usability SUS Score ≥ 80
Cultural Integrity 100%
Project Timeline
Phase 0 — Week 1
Planning & Setup
Requirements finalized, database schema designed, design system established, development environment configured
Phase 1 — Weeks 2–4
Public Marketing Website
Fully responsive marketing site built with premium design, preloader, animations, and live AI translator demo
Phase 2 — Weeks 5–6
Auth & Admin Dashboard
Secure login system, role-based access control, admin dashboard shell with all navigation and stat widgets
Phase 3 — Weeks 7–8
Upload System
Manuscript and research paper upload workflow, metadata forms, file validation, and DB-driven processing queue
Phase 4 — Weeks 9–11
AI Processing Pipeline
OCR, multi-language translation, AI categorization, and TK label generation — fully automated pipeline
Phase 5 — Weeks 12–13
Archive & Public Search
Review/approve workflow, publish mechanism, public archive with semantic search and filters
Phase 6 — Week 14
Analytics Dashboard
Academic evaluation metrics dashboard — F1, BLEU, BERT, SUS, and cultural integrity tracking
Phase 7 — Weeks 15–16
Testing & Deployment
Full QA, security hardening, and production deployment to institution server
The People

Meet the Research Team

The academics, researchers and technologists behind Ìmọ̀dòtun AI at Ede Polytechnic

Dr. [Principal Investigator]
Dr. [Principal Investigator]
Project Lead & Principal Investigator
Leads the Ìmọ̀dòtun AI research initiative at Ede Polytechnic. Specializes in AI applications for cultural heritage preservation and indigenous knowledge systems in sub-Saharan Africa.
[Co-Investigator Name]
[Co-Investigator Name]
AI & NLP Research Lead
Drives the AI/NLP architecture including the multi-language translation model, OCR pipeline, and semantic search engine. Expert in low-resource language processing for Nigerian languages.
[Developer Name]
[Developer Name]
Lead Platform Developer
Responsible for the full-stack development of the Ìmọ̀dòtun AI platform — frontend design, PHP backend, database architecture, AI service integrations, and deployment.
[Community Liaison Name]
[Community Liaison Name]
Community & Cultural Consultant
Ensures all archived content meets community consent protocols and Traditional Knowledge (TK) standards. Bridges the academic platform and the indigenous communities it serves.
[Linguist Name]
[Linguist Name]
Indigenous Languages Specialist
Manages the multi-language glossary and culturally aware translation corrections across Yorùbá, Igbo, Hausa, and other Nigerian languages on the platform.
[Research Assistant Name]
[Research Assistant Name]
Research Assistant & Archivist
Coordinates manuscript digitization, manages the archive taxonomy, handles reviewer workflows, and supports academic evaluation and documentation for the project.
Our Approach

Three Principles That Guide Everything

01
Ethics Before Technology
No manuscript or cultural material is uploaded, processed, or published without explicit, documented consent from the originating community. The Traditional Knowledge (TK) label system is not an optional add-on — it is built into the core upload workflow. Community ownership is non-negotiable.
02
AI as a Tool, Humans as Guardians
The AI pipeline handles the heavy lifting — OCR, translation, categorization — but every item passes through a human review stage before publication. Reviewers correct AI output, confirm cultural accuracy, and ensure nothing is misrepresented. Automation speeds the work; human judgement protects the integrity.
03
Built to Be Replicated
From the database schema to the translation glossary system to the TK label framework, every architectural decision is made with portability in mind. Another polytechnic in Kano, a university in Enugu, a library in Accra — any institution should be able to adopt this platform for their own community.
Academic Partners & Stakeholders
Ede Polytechnic
UNESCO IK Programme
National Library of Nigeria
NLP Research Community
Osun State Communities

Want to Contribute to
Ìmọ̀dòtun AI?

Whether you have manuscripts to archive, cultural knowledge to share, or research to contribute — we want to hear from you. Join us in building this platform for the future.

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