GENERAL ASSEMBLYINTERSPEECH 2007

Antwerp, Belgium

Agenda1. Opening Remarks and approval of the Minutes of the

2006 General Assembly (Pittsburgh)2. President's Report3. Treasurer's Report4. Approval of Reports5. Announcements of Changes to the ISCA Board6. ISCA: Goals for 2007-87. Announcement of Next ISCA General Assembly8. Any Other Business9. Handover to the New President

1. Opening Remarks and approval of the Minutes of the 2005 General Assembly (Lisbon)

2. President's Report

3. Treasurer's Report

4. Approval of Reports

5. ISCA: Goals for 2006-7

6. Announcement of Next ISCA General Assembly

7. Any Other Business

Minutes of the 2006 General Assembly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, 19 September 2006, 6:30 pm

President’s Report• Recent Board Meetings• Secretariat and Membership• Membership Services• The ISCA Online Archive• Workshops• International Affairs• Scientific Diversity• Industry Liaison• Conferences• Grants and Awards• Student Liaison• Publications• SIGs• Others

Julia Hirschberg

Recent Board Meetings

• Sept. 2005: Lisbon (2)• Dec. 2005: Virtual• Mar. 2006: Virtual• Jun. 2006: Virtual• Sept.2006: Pittsburgh (2)• Dec. 2006: Virtual• Jan. 2007: Virtual• April 2007: Virtual• Aug. 2007: Antwerp

Secretariat and Membership

• Direct contact with members• Membership database• Financial transactions and administration

– Support for ITRWs– Membership dues

• Web content coordination• Documentation of ISCA board meetings• Elections to the Board and Advisory Council• ISCA Statutes and Bylaws

Please give us input and suggestions either this week at the ISCA Booth or later: secretariat@isca-speech.org

David HouseISCA Secretary

Manu FoxonetAdministrative

Assistant

Membership Development

ISCA Membership from 89 to 07

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Oceania2%

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America31%

Europe44%

Asia21%

596 – 44%

17 – 1%12 – 1%

434 - 3%

296 – 21%

Membership Services

• Individual member username and password now can be used to access the Archive

• Improved the re-application process for current members to on-line membership application system with integration into the back-end banking system.

• Online ISCA Election • Improved web-based membership search and reporting

facilities for membership administration • In Progress:

– Enabling access to ISCA Archive by Google Scholar – Website re-design [on-going - completed basic design /

navigation structure will put on-line shortly for consideration by Board].

Michael Picheny

The ISCA Online Archive• Contains all former INTERSPEECH (EUROSPEECH and

ICSLP) conferences and all ITRWs and ETRWs from 1987 to 2006 in machine-readable form

• Available on website since August 2003http://www.isca-speech.org/archive/index.html

– Abstracts accessible for everybody– Full papers accessible for members only– Use your individual ISCA password to access

• Since 2007 linked to Google Scholar, thanks to David Gelbart and the Student Committee

Wolfgang Hess

Main Page

Event Page

Abstract/Paper

Archive Structure

Some Numbers• 19 INTERSPEECH (EUROSPEECH, ICSLP) Conferences

with 11651 papers• 65 ITRW‘s and ETRW‘s with 2664 papers• Nine ISCA-supported events with 768 papers• In total: 93 events, 15083 papers, 4.51 GByte of disk space• New INTERSPEECH conferences, ITRW‘s, and supported

events will add around 1000 papers per year• Planned: ISCA Archive on DVD. Likely to be ready in

2008.

ISCA Tutorial & Research Workshops (ITRWs)

• 11 ITRWs organized 2006-2007• Publications

– Proceedings– CD-ROMs– Special Issues

Speech Communication– Archive

• 22 ISCA-supported (non-ITRW) Workshops

• Contact ISCA fornew event proposalsworkshops@isca-speech.org

Sadaoki Furui

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Sadaoki Furui

2007• NOLISP07 – Non-Linear Speech Processing• SSW-6 – 6th Speech Synthesis Research Workshop• Young Researchers’ Roundtable on Spoken Dialog Systems• 8th SIGdial Workshop on Discourse and Dialogue• SLaTE Workshop on Speech and Language Technology in Education

2008• Odyssey 2008 (The Speaker and Language Recognition Workshop)• Workshop on Evidence-based Voice and Speech Rehabilitation in Head &

Neck Oncology• Workshop on Speech Analysis and Processing for Knowledge Discovery• Workshop on Experimental Linguistics 2008• AVSP 2008 (Auditory-Visual Speech Processing)

ISCA International Affairs CommitteeLin-shan Lee

• ISCA decided to become an international organization in 1999 in Budapest

– Events and participants in them should not be confined to Europe– ISCA International Affairs Committee tries to fulfill that mandate

• Targets regions currently under-represented in ISCA programs• Establishing Subcommittees for these regions to initiate

region-specific efforts – Sub-committee on Eastern Europe– Sub-committee on West Asia and North Africa– Sub-committee on South Asia– Sub-committee on Sub-Saharan Africa

ISCA International Affairs CommitteeLin-shan Lee

• Sample Action Items for the International Affairs Committee– Disseminating information about regional research activities to the global

research community through ISCA channels– Distributing ISCA event and service information to researchers in their

region– Initiating ISCA-organized or co-sponsored events in their region– Recommending that students and young researchers in their region

apply for ISCA grants to attend events sponsored by ISCA– Establishing Regional Branches or Special Interest Groups– Arranging Distinguished Lecturers Tours to give lectures in their region– Developing ISCA relationships with relevant sister associations in their

regions

ISCA Distinguished Lecturers Program

• Sending Distinguished Lecturers to different parts of the world when invited by a Regional Subcommittee

• Selection Committee chaired by Sadaoki Furui• Two Distinguished Lecturers selected by the end of 2006 for

2007-08– Chin-Hui Lee, Georgia Institute of Technologies, USA

first lecture tour going to South Asia in Nov 2007

– Marc Swerts, Tilburg University, the Netherlands first lecture tour to Brazil in June 2007

• Call for Nominations for new DLs by 15 Nov 2007

Sadaoki Furui

Lin-shan Lee

Scientific Diversity– In charge of strengthening and broadening ISCA’s involvement in all areas of scientific and technological disciplines that are related to speech communication, both between humans and between humans and machines

1. Survey on long-term trends of papers presented at INTERSPEECH conferences

2. Re-examine topics to be announced in the call for papers, etc.

3. Identify key areas where ISCA’s involvement and leadership is desired

Hiroya Fujisaki

Scientific Diversity– ISCA Board’s Recommendation on the list of topics for INTERSPEECH conferences since 2004

– ISCA Board’s Recommendation on strategies for encouraging active exchanges with less well represented fields:

a. Composition of the organizing team

b. Enlarging the range of contact beyond past attendees and current members

c. Organizing special sessions, invited talks, etc. especially aimed at interdisciplinary exchanges

d. Advisory Committee on Scientific Diversity

Hiroya Fujisaki

Industry Liaison• Maintains a List of Speech R&D Companies and Speech

Technology Vendors– multinational, national and regional companies

– provides job advertising service

• ISCA-Industry Roundtable with Senior R&D Managers of Multinational Speech R&D Companies

– September 2005 at INTERSPEECH in Lisbon

– September 2006 at INTERSPEECH in Pittsburgh

• Development of the ISCA-Industry Dialog– information on ISCA‘s role in speech R&D internationally

– job market facilitation through ISCA publications and website

– emerging issues of evaluation, quality and standards

Michael Wagner

International Conferences

• Future INTERSPEECH Conferences

– 2008, Brisbane, Australia

– 2009, Brighton, UK

– 2010, Makuhari, Japan

– 2011 - Call for Proposals and guidelines available http://www.isca-speech.org/conferences.html (deadline: November 15th 2007)

• No Eurospeech/ICSLP distinction• Call for volunteers reviewers

Isabel Trancoso

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Brisbane, Australia, 22-26 Sept.

Brisbane, Australia, 22-26 Sept.

INTERSPEECH 2009 Brighton, UK 6-9 Sept.

“Speech and Intelligence”

“Towards spoken language processing for all – regardless of age, health conditions, languages, environment, etc.”

Grants September 2006 -07Jean-François

BonastreTotal expenditure by ISCA: ~13500 E Int.07: ~10600 E

Total: ~24100 E

Grants:54(7 events)

41 for IS-07

13 for other ISCA events

Countries: 23

Awards

ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement 2007 Recipient: Victor ZueISCA Medal for Service 2007

Recipient: Wolfgang Hess

ISCA Award for the best paper published in the Speech Communication Journal 2004-2006 (Gokhan Tur, Dilek Hakkani-Tür, Rob Schapire)

3 ISCA Awards for the Best Student Paper of INTERSPEECH 2007

Philippe Dreuw « Speech Recognition Techniques for a Sign Language Recognition System »

Chao Qin « An Empirical Investigation of the Nonuniqueness in the Acoustic-to-Articulatory Mapping »

Patrick Lucey « A Unified Approach to Multi-Pose Audio-Visual ASR »

Jean-François Bonastre

A. W. Black A. Cutler P. Dalsgaard

C. H. LeeJ. Mariani R. K. Moore  

Jury:E. ShribergR. Stern B. Z. Yuan  

B. Granstrom J. Hansen L. Lamel

Jean-François Bonastre

Student liaisonISCA Student Advisory Committee

• Currently 5 board members, 6 student volunteers, … growing every month

• After serving 2 terms, Murat and Christophe are leaving the board. Marco and Antonio became board members after their experience as student volunteers.

Jean-François Bonastre

Student liaisonISCA Student Advisory Committee

Last year’s progress:

• Website improved significantly with new components, over 200 users.

• ISCA archive indexed under Google Scholar in collaboration with Google and David Gelbart from ICSI. Increased visibility of ISCA archive and citation.

• Educational Series (seminars, panel discussions) @ every Interspeech (last year: how to find your dream job?, this year: how to improve your presentation skills?), new events coming at following Interspeech conferences…

• Transcription of last year’s panel discussion uploaded on the web

Publications

ISCApad monthly E-newspaper (last issue: #110):ISCA life, job offers,conferences, under print papers, new books…

Elsevier contacts Speech

Communication

ISCApad number 110July 31st, 2007EditorialDear Members,Due to holidays, this August issue is delivered a little bit earlier in order that all announcements are not too much delayed and are available before Interspeech. See you there and be prepared to attend our general assembly in Antwerp with many questions and constructive comments.

Christian Wellekens

TABLE OF CONTENTS1. ISCA News2. SIG's activities3. Courses, internships4. Books, databases, softwares5. Job openings6. Journals7. Future Interspeech Conferences8. Future ISCA Tutorial and Research Workshops (ITRW)9. Forthcoming Events supported (but not organized) by ISCA10. Future Speech Science and technology events

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

SynSIG

Chinese SLP

AVISA

SaLTMILSIGdial

EvaHajicova

SIG-IL

ISCA SIG-ILSP

AFCP

AISV

SLaTE

Some special activities of SIGs• Special session at Interspeech - proposed by

SALTMIL• International Conferences and Workshops - e.g.

SP 2006 organized by SProSIG• Special issue of Speech Communication – SIG-IL• Summer Schools - AISV• Annual meetings - regularly by several SIGs• Thanks to the SIGs for their help in recruiting

reviewers!!

Treasurer’s Report• Positive result for 2006 (less income but less

expenditure)• Regular financial base for continued Interspeech and

ITRW seed funding• Considerable savings in Board meeting costs (4

teleconference meeting - 1 regular )• Plans done for new initiatives in 2007-8:

distinguished lecturers, website, grants, student activities

Chris Wellekens

Income 2005 2006INTERSPEECH DONATIONS

42,280Lisbon

36,505Pittsburgh

ITRW SHARES - 900

SALE PROCEEDINGS 658 762

MEMBERSHIP 52,576 40,130

INTEREST 210 242

TOTAL (€) 95,724 78,539

Note: Loan payments/repayments are not included in the income and expenditure tables

Expenditure (1) 2005 2006SALARIES 34,243 35,803

MEETINGS 13,224 4,504

SECRETARIAT 4,771 3,590

GRANTS 14,189 13,925M’SHIP SERVICES/ARCHIVE

7,060 0

WEBSITE - 5,851

carried forward 73,487 63,673

Expenditure (2) 2005 2006brought forward 73,487 63,673

STUDENTS 1,000 2,000

W’SHOPS & GROUPS 5,033 1,000

LIAISON & SIG 1,005 0

OTHER 1,932 0

BANK COSTS 1,014 1,280

TOTAL (€) 83,471 67,953

INCOME OVER EXPENDITURE

2005 2006

Income 95,724

Expenditure 83,471

Income over Expenditure

12,253

78,539

67,953

10,586

Assets 31.12.2005 31.12.2006

BANK BALANCE 101,609 90,114

RECEIVABLES 13,000 35,000

TOTAL ASSETS (€) 114,609 125,114

Liabilities & EquityPAYABLES - -

EQUITY (€) 114,609 125,114

For several months each year, ISCA has loans to 1 or 2 Interspeech conferences and 1 or 2 workshops outstanding. Assets >€82k are required to maintain a positive cash balance.

Conclusions

• ISCA is financially sound• ISCA will continue to provide loans for Inter-

speech conferences and ITRW workshops• ISCA is in a position to gradually enhance its

support for grants, Distinguished Lecturer travel, and new initiatives

Chris Wellekens

Approval of Reports

• President‘s Report

• Treasurer‘s Report

Goals for 2007-8

To expand international participation in ISCA

Distinguished Lecturers program

Regional sub-committees

To understand members’ needs better through surveys and increase community involvement

To support student-centered activities

To improve current ISCA web-based services and create new ones

Changes to the ISCA Board

President: Isabel Trancoso

New members: Alan Black (USA), Helen Meng (China), Bernd Möbius (Germany), Yoshinori Sagisaka (Japan), Tanja Schultz (Germany)

Continuing members: Jean-Francois Bonastre, Eva Hajicova, David House, Lin-shan Lee, Michael Picheny, Isabel Trancoso

Retiring members: Hiroya Fujisaki, Sadaoki Furui, Julia Hirschberg, Michael Wagner, Chris Wellekens

Next ISCA General Assembly

INTERSPEECH 2008

Brisbane, Australia, September 22-26, 2008

Any Other Business?

Handover to the new

ISCA President

Isabel Trancoso