The Role of Speech Science in Developing Robust Speech Technology Applications

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This workshop will focus on the critical role that speech science should play in developing robust future speech technology applications. The result of the workshop is a report containing well-motivated interdisciplinary core recommendations to NSF on how to best promote and foster the role of speech science in developing speech technology applications for the long-term benefit of society. Of special interest are those areas in which industry is unlikely to invest in because the topic is not a priority, the time course is too long, or the population served is not of interest. Secondary impacts of the workshop may also include specific future collaborations among attendees interested in promoting speech science research at their local university or institute.The workshop will serve as a unique opportunity for discussing an interdisciplinary perspective on speech science and speech engineering by bringing together three groups: (1) speech scientists, (2) speech engineers, and (3) government program managers, across multiple topics areas. Invitees will include scientists and technologists, chosen based on recommendations from NSF Program Managers and from experts in the field. The workshop invitees will be asked to give a brief overview of specifically chosen research areas, explain where they think more progress is needed, and give opinions on the barriers to progress. Topic areas will include speech processing for populations often not of prime focus for large speech companies, including children and the elderly, as well as problems that are not well understood such as speaker variability, contextual affects and speaker state, biological models, and learning from small sample sets. Participants from these different disciplines and topic areas typically do not meet together to discuss future research directions; the list of invitees has been developed with exactly this goal in mind.