Speech Pitch: Recent Episodes
ISCA-SAC
Speech Pitch is ISCA-SAC's (Student Advisory Committee of the International Speech Communication Association) new podcast! Throughout the episodes, we will interview different guests, mostly from the speech community, in an informal setting. We want to get to know their work, their stories and their ideas for the future. This podcast is hosted by PhD students in speech, with no experience in podcasts, but with the hope that it can bring the students and the entire speech community closer together, especially in pandemic times where we lack presencial conferences and other social interactions. We will try to have a new episode every 2 or 3 months. We hope you enjoy listening to it, and stay tuned!
Meet Rob van Son, Senior researcher at the Netherlands Cancer Institute Amsterdam who shares his interests and his impressions on Interspeech 2024 in Kos.
Host: Zhengjun Yue
Meet Shrikanth Narayanan who is professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Niki & C. L. Max Nikias Chair in Engineering shares his research interests and his impressions on Interspeech 2024 in Kos.
Host: Orchid Chetia Phukan
Meet Shekhar Nayak, associate professor in Speech Technology in Campus Fryslân of University of Groningen. Listen about his interests, his academic journey and of course his impression on Interspeech 2024 in Kos.
Host: Spyretta Leivaditi
Siyang is a PhD student in KTH Royal Institute of Technology shares his experience and impression of Interspeech 2024 in Kos.
Meet Suhas, Ph.D. candidate in Informatics at Penn State University, where he works at the intersection of Machine Learning, Human-Computer Interaction, and Health. He shares is interests and his impressions on Interspeech 2024.
Hosts: Spyretta Leivaditi
Esther Klabbers senior speech reseracher and CEO of Phaistos Speech & Language Technology Services, shares her research interests and het impressions on Interspeech 2024 in Kos.
Host: Spyretta Leivaditi
Meet Mathew Magimai Doss, Senior Researcher at Idiap Research Institute, shares his research interests and his impressions on Interspeech 2024 in Kos.
Host: Orchid Chetia Phukan
Meet Iuliia, PhD Researcher at Universität des Saarlandes, sharing her research interests and impressions on Interspeech 2024 in Kos.
Host: Wei Xue
Meet Harm Lameris, PhD Student in Conversational AI in KTH Royal Institute of Technolog shares his interests and his impressions on Interspeech 2024 in Kos.
Host: Paige Tuttösí
Meet Thomas, PostDoctoral researcher in INESC-ID and one of the original hosts of Speech Pitch this time as a guest. Grab this opportunity to listen about his research interests interest and of course how did he exerince Interspeech 2024 in Kos.
Host: Wei Xue
Aaricia is a ASR Researcher & Computational Linguist at Alphaspeech, introduces her interests and impressions of Interspeech 2024.
Host: Spyretta Leivaditi
Marta won Best Poster Award 2024 in Young female Researchers in Speech Workshop (YFRSW 2024) and shares with us her research interests and her impressions of Interspeech 2024 in Kos.
Host: Sarthak Jain
In this episode we share information about the Greek island, Kos that is hosting Interspeech 2024. You will learn how you can travel from the airport to the conference venue itself, what to pack for this trip, the food culture of Greece, fun activities in the island and some survival Greek. To practise some survival Greek press here
In Travel Information.pdf you can find some traveling information to the venue.
Book in advance the shuttle service specially organized for Interspeech 2024 delegates HERE.
Survival Greek:
Thank you , [efxaɾiˈsto]
You are welcome, [parakaˈlo]
Where is the toilet, [ˈpu ˈine i tuaˈleta]
Water, [neˈɾo]
Yes, [ˈne]
No, [ˈoçi]
Left, [aɾisteˈɾa]
Right, [ðeksiˈa]
Help, [voˈiθia]
Fire, [foˈtça]
Hotel, [ksenoðoˈçio]
Good morning, [kaliˈmeɾa]
Good afternoon, [kaliˈspera]
Good night, [kaliˈnixta]
Pharmacy, [faɾmaˈcio]
Hospital, [nosokoˈmio]
00:00:00 -Intro
00:00:22 -Outline
00:00:40 -About Kos
00:01:33 -Kos geography
00:03:47 -History
00:05:32 -Language, currency, payment
00:06:51 -Safety
00:07:58 -Taxis
00:08:40 -Weather
00:11:01 -What to pack
00:11:30 -Power adaptors
00:12:04 -Medicine and pharmacies
00:13:35 -How to get to the conference venue
00:15:31 -Buses
00:19:16 -Bus app for Kos "Kos near bus"
00:19:35 -Hotels
00:20:49 -Food
00:26:22 -Vegetarian food options
00:28:09 -Drinks
00:31:33 -Activities on Kos
00:36:49 -Beaches
00:39:15 -Travel destinations by ferry
00:40:30 -Greek words
Matt Coler is an accomplished academic and a leading figure in the field of Voice Technology. He is an Associate Professor of Language and Technology at the University of Groningen, Campus Fryslân. Notably, Matt initiated and now leads the Master’s Program in Voice Technology at the university, a testament to his dedication and expertise in the field. In addition to his teaching and research responsibilities, Matt also leads a summer school in Speech Tech at the University of Groningen, providing students with an immersive learning experience and a deeper understanding of speech technology.
In this podcast episode, Matt shares his unique journey from studying Philosophy and Mandarin Chinese in the U.S. to becoming a professor in Groningen. His research interests are diverse, but a common thread is his focus on under-resourced languages. Matt believes that academia has a crucial role in supplementing industry by addressing problems that may not be as lucrative but are nonetheless important. He provides an overview of the Master’s Program for Voice Technology, emphasising its practical applications and collaboration with industry. The program is designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge they need to make significant contributions to the field. Matt also discusses the Speech Tech Summer School, which explores a new topic each year, keeping the curriculum fresh and relevant. This approach reflects Matt’s commitment to staying at the forefront of advancements in speech technology.
Chapters:
00:00:00-Intro
00:00:20-Welcoming Matt Coler
00:00:52-Matt's background
00:02:10-Matt's research journey to in Groningen
00:07:00-Matt's research areas
00:12:18-Assessing speech
00:18:13-Matt's stance on industry and academia
00:20:50-MSc Voice/Speech Technology at University of Groningen in Campus Fryslân
00:44:34-Speech tech Summer School
00:52:41-Ethical aspects in his research
00:57:34-Matt's take on work-life balance
01:03:00-Fun questions
01:11:14-Outro
There is no such thing as a banquet that lasts forever, and farewells can be bittersweet as we part ways with old and newfound friends from the conference. Yet, the real magic often happens behind the scenes.
In this episode, we were joined by two dedicated members of the UK Speech 2023 local committee: Hend TM Elghazaly and Olga Iakovenko. As the conference venue quieted down after attendees departed, they offered us a glimpse into the world of conference organisation as a team. From the joys they found in the process to the challenges they encountered, they shared their insights and experiences, leaving us with valuable advice for future student volunteers.
In this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing three senior students from the Centre for Doctoral Training in Speech and Language Technologies, University of Sheffield: George Close, Mary Hewitt and Tom Pickard. Drawing from their personal experience, they shared valuable insights on how to navigate conferences without getting exhausted, along with recounting their most memorable and unexpected moments.
In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Robbie Sutherland and Mattias Cross, two first-year PhD students from the University of Sheffield, working on speech and language technologies. With limited conference experience, they discussed their expectations for such events and posed insightful questions for seasoned senior students to shed light on.
UK Speech annually extends its invitation to local businesses, offering them a platform to showcase their advancements in speech technologies. In this exclusive interview, we had the pleasure of hosting representatives from Oxford Wave Research, a company specialising in audio and speech processing, voice biometrics, and deep learning-driven product development.
During our conversation with Dr Anil Alexander and Dr Finnian Kelly, we delved into the vast potential of speech technologies and their significance for everyday individuals. The discussion also touched upon the unique research dynamics within a smaller company and strategies for fostering collaboration with academic researchers. Last but not least, Anil and Finnian revealed the qualities they seek in potential new team members -- yes, they are hiring! Tune in to seize this opportunity!
Apart from big speech research groups, there are also many other research groups of various sizes. In this episode, we interviewed Dr. Jennifer Williams, an Associate Professor at the University of Southampton, who has worked a lot on privacy and security in the speech field. Joining us was Beatrice Pakenham-Walsh, a final-year undergraduate student. UK Speech 2023 marked Beatrice's conference debut, where she presented a poster on using audio analysis to detect pain.
In this episode, Dr. Williams and Beatrice shared their experiences and perspectives on doing speech research at the University of Southampton. We discussed the challenge of interdisciplinary work, the role of a research community and how individual researchers can use a community to identify potential collaborative opportunities.
Apart from big speech research groups, there are also many other research groups of various sizes. In this episode, we interviewed Dr Zoe Handley, an Associate Professor at the Department of Education at the University of York. Dr Handley has more than 20 years of experience in applying speech technologies in language education.
In the discussion, Dr Handley shared her views about the evolution of speech technologies from the perspective of language learning and teaching. She also talked about how to find collaborations outside the researcher’s institute, and how to leverage conferences such as UKSpeech to find such collaborations. At the end, we also discussed the connection between STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and social sciences, as well as applications in general.
The University of Cambridge has one of the biggest speech research groups in the UK. In this episode, we have Dr Kate Knill and her colleague Dr Mengjie Qian from the Machine Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Dr Knill is a Principal Research Associate in the Machine Intelligence Laboratory. She is also one of the keynote speakers at UK Speech 2023. Her speech is titled ‘Foundation Models in Spoken Language Processing: Time to go home or make hay?
In this episode, Dr Knill recapped her keynote speech with the key line for the audience to take away. Together with Dr Qian, she also shared her opinions about the big changes in automated language teaching and assessment over the past few years, as well as what it will be like in the next 5 to 10 years. We also discussed the potential to apply such automotive assessment techniques in the music field. In the end, they shared their vision about the UK and Ireland Speech 2024, which will be held at the University of Cambridge.
This episode is the first in a special series of mini-episodes covering the UK Speech 2023 Conference. In preparation for the conference, we have ISCA-SAC’s volunteer Guanyu Huang talk to Dr Anton Ragni, the Local Committee Chair of the conference, about its organisation, history, and impact of the conference on the speech research community in the UK.
In this episode, we have a conversation with Roger K. Moore, Professor of Spoken Language Processing at the University of Sheffield. Prof. Moore has more than 50 years' experience in research and development of speech technology, having been President of the European/International Speech Communication Association from 1997 to 2001, and the Head of the UK Government's Speech Research Unit from 1985 to 1999.
During this conversation, Prof. Moore spoke to us about the development of the field of speech technology in the last 40 years, and shared his views on the past and future of the field, as well as on the possible impacts of Large Language Models in speech technology . We further discussed his own work on speech recognition and animal vocalisations, and got to learn about his experience as a professor and his love for photography.
In this episode, we have Professor Pascale Fung with us. Pascale is the Chair Professor at the Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering at The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST), a visiting professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, and the Director of HKUST Centre for AI Research (CAiRE). Apart from her highly-achieved academic roles, she is also very active in the industry.
In our conversation, Pascale generously shared her experiences and knowledge regarding the relationship between AI and art, why and how we need to work on empathetic machines, the uncanny valley effect in conversational agents, global collaboration on ethical AI, as well as her personal role models and interesting stories and enlightening insights about science communication.
In this episode, we are chatting with John Hansen, a Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is also the founder of the Center for Robust Speech Systems at the same university, and was the president of ISCA – the International Speech Communication Association, until last year. John has worked in many different fields, so we had the opportunity to discuss many interesting topics, including robust and speech recognition, health applications of speech technologies, and even got to hear really interesting stories about NASA, within the context of the fearless steps project. This is a long episode, but full on incredible stories and interesting perspectives on science, and the speech community.
In this episode, we are chatting with Shri Narayanan, a Professor at the University of Southern California. Among many other things, Shri is a Fellow of many institutions including the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), IEEE, and ISCA; an editor of several journals, including the Computer, Speech and Language Journal; and (Spoiler Alert!!) a musician of South Indian Classical Variety. We talk about multidisciplinary research, the importance of being heard, and the big challenges that motivate Shri in speech research. We also discuss ways of making an impact, through publication and entrepreneurial aspects.
In this episode, we are chatting with Nicholas Cummins, a Lecturer in AI for speech analysis at King's College London. We talk about speech technologies for health-related applications with a special focus on mental health. We also discuss several of Nick's recent projects as well as his views and advices on living abroad.
In this episode we are chatting with Odette Scharenborg, an Associate Professor and Delft Technology Fellow. She is also a member of the ISCA board, where she acts as the chair of the diversity committee, co-chair of the Interspeech Conferences committee and of the Technical Committee. We talk about diversity concerns not only in speech technology but also within the community. Odette also told us about her career, its highlights as well as its least successful aspects.
This is the first episode of Speech Pitch, ISCA-SAC's (Student Advisory Committee of the International Speech Communication Association) new podcast. We are interviewing Iona Gessinger, last year’s ISCA-SAC General Coordinator and winner of the best student-paper award in Interspeech 2020.