Te Taka Adrian Gregory Keegan is a New Zealand academic and

Māori language Māori (), or ('the Māori language'), also known as ('the language'), is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. Closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and ...

revivalist. He is descended from the Waikato-Maniapoto, Ngāti Apakura, Te Whānau-ā-Karuai ki Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Whakaaue

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

. With a background in hardware engineering, Keegan returned to

Waikato University , mottoeng = For The People , established = 1964; years ago , endowment = (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $263.6 million (31 December 2020) , chancellor = Sir Anand Satyanand, GNZM, QSO, KStJ , vice_chancellor = Neil Quigley , city ...

to pursue a master's degree in Traditional Māori Navigation. He then became involved in the computer science department and became the first to teach computer science in immersion te reo Māori He completed his PhD titled ''Indigenous Language Usage in a Digital Library: He Hautoa Kia Ora Tonu Ai'' based on work with the New Zealand Digital Library, a research project led by

Ian H. Witten Ian H. Witten (born 4 March 1947 in Horsham, Sussex, England) is a computer scientist at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He is a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Electrical Engineers in London who graduated from the University of ...

. His academic profile can be found at the

website. Keegan led the team that translated Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 into te reo Māori and consulted with the team that translated Office 2013 and

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for downl ...

. The former involved coining many new terms, which have since been incorporated into ''A Dictionary of Māori Computer related terms''. He was also involved in

SwiftKey Microsoft SwiftKey is a virtual keyboard app originally developed by TouchType for Android and iOS devices. It was first released for Android in July 2010, followed by an iOS release in September 2014 after Apple implemented third-party keyb ...

having Māori as a supported language. In association with spending a sabbatical at

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

, Keegan was the driving language force behind Google Maori. He is also one of the trustees of

Tūhono Tūhono is an advocacy network for Māori groups and individuals within New Zealand. As well as forming a network linking different iwi and hapū, Tūhono aims to promote cultural and spiritual wellbeing and benefit to the Māori community and al ...

, a database linking individual Māori with their iwi.Tūhono Trust
" ''www.tuhono.net''. Retrieved 15 August 2021.

Awards

In 2017, New Zealand

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Bill English presented Keegan with the nation's highest teaching award, the Prime Minister's Supreme Award, in recognition of Keegan's sustained commitment to teaching and learning.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keegan, Te Taka University of Waikato faculty New Zealand computer scientists Living people New Zealand Māori academics Māori language revivalists University of Waikato alumni Indigenous linguists Year of birth missing (living people)