Speech Pitch ISCA-SAC

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.