Dear ISCA Members,

Interspeech 2013 is approaching! If your registration and/or
accommodation is not settled now, please do it as soon as possible. You
will find on the conference website the preliminary program and a lot of practical information for the venue.

While the main goal of such an event is to discover and to discuss new
scientific approaches, our conferences are also designed in order to
facilitate new research contacts, to meet some colleagues, to find some
future students or post docs and to have, simply, some good moments
with our 'research friends'.

Interspeech is also an unique occasion for you to talk with the ISCA
board as well as with the other ISCA members about your favorite
scientific association! Since last year, we have revamped the ISCA
General Assembly (which will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 27) in order to offer
more discussion time. It is a little bit disappointing for the board
members as we will have less time to present the past year's activities. However, it
seems more important for us to save as much time as possible for
direct intereaction with you. Please, if you have some questions, if you
have some specific points you want to discuss during the GA, send an
email before the GA or talk to me in Lyon or just ask your points during
the GA!

During Interspeech 2013, we will deliver to Prof. Hynek Hermansky the
ISCA scientific Medal for 2013. We will also congratulate our new
fellows (they will be announced during the INTERSPEECH 2013 welcome
event) and our two new Distinguished Lecturers for 2013-2014 (Prof. Hynek
Hermansky and Dr. Michael Riley).

This year, the GA will be the occasion to welcome five new ISCA board
members: Gérard BAILLY, Martin COOKE, Mark HASEGAWA-JOHNSON, Hynek
HERMANSKY and Kate KNILL. Congratulations! It will be also the time for
all the members to thank David HOUSE, Michael PICHENY, Yannis STYLIANOU
and Isabel TRANCOSO, who are leaving the board. Dear David, Michael,
Yannis and Isabel, I want to take this official occasion to say that it
was really a great pleasure to have you in the board, to see your
enthusiasm day after day and your continuous efforts for ISCA!

I am at the end of both my Presidential mandate and my second board term
and I will also leave the board during INTERSPEECH 2013, and the next
ISCA President will be announced during the General Assembly. So, this
message is my last one as ISCA President... It was (and it is still for
some weeks) a great honor for me to serve as ISCA President.

When an association has a long history and is in a good shape, which is
clearly the case for ISCA, the role of the President is not to repaint
all the picture but mainly to ensure good working conditions for the
real workers, your board colleagues. It was particularly true for me as
I took benefit from both the strong foundations gathered from the work
of the past Presidents and the continuous involvement of my excellent
board colleagues. I don't want to forget here our administrative
secretary, Emmanuelle/'Manu'. She doesn't like to be in the spotlight,
I know, but she is playing an indispensable role in our Association and
it was a pleasure to have her around me during my President mandate.

Sometimes, the President could also add some small details in the
graphic. The main part of these small brushstrokes will be forgotten in
the future but, as President, you hope that one, at least, will be
a seed that germinates one day... My personal hope is to see the
importance of the social role of ISCA growing in the close future, as I
am absolutely sure that ISCA is much more than just a collection of
people and scientific events, even if the people are great and the
events marvelous!

I wish to meet you all during Interspeech and I am sure we will have a
very successful conference.

JF Bonastre
ISCA President
 


 

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 Dear members of ISCA,

All voters in the upcoming election for the ISCA Board must be active members in 2013.

 Please note that a 'yearly renewal' at ISCA does not actually give a 12-month term. 

To simplify administration, the ISCA Board decided in 2002 to have all memberships 

end either on June 30 or Dec. 31, which means that any given renewal lasts a variable 

duration (8-14 months) depending on when the renewal occurs; see:

 http://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/index.php/membership/251 

All those who paid their fees via registration at Interspeech-2012 are active ISCA 

members till June 30, 2013. However, those who paid a yearly renewal early in 2012

 must renew for 2013 to render their account active. We invite you to verify your status:

 http://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/iscamember/list 

With your member number XXXX, you can retrieve a forgotten password:

 http://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/iscamember/forget 

We hope you will be participating in this year's election, which is expected to start 

next week and end on April 30th. All ISCA members will get an invitation email to vote.

 Best regards, 

Douglas O'Shaughnessy ISCA Secretary 

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Video archives are available in 

http://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/index.php/archive/video-archive 

where keynote speeches from IS 2007, 2010 and 2011 can be seen. Very soon we will have 

the material for IS 2012 as well.

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CALL FOR CANDIDATES
AFCP THESIS PRIZE 2013

Since 2004, the French-speaking Association for Speech Communication (AFCP - http://www.afcp-parole.org/) awards
an annual scientific prize for an excellent thesis to promote research in spoken communication, basic or applied, in the fields of Computer Science, Humanities, Social Sciences and Life Sciences (see http://www.afcp-parole.org/spip.php?rubrique172 for past laureates). This award supports and disseminates the work of young researchers.
The prize is awarded by a jury composed of researchers from the elected board of AFCP (http://www.afcp-parole.org/spip.php?article1718). It will be officially presented at the JEP conference, in June 2014.
The winner will receive the sum of 500 euros and will be invited to present his/her work to the community of spoken communication. Moreover his/her thesis will be published as a book in the collection 'Parole' (Speech) (published by CIPA).

 The thesis can be written in English provided it comes from a French speaking laboratory.
CALENDAR
Deadline of submission: 30 April 2013
AFCP jury's decision: 30 September 2013 Award ceremony: JEP 2014
CONDITIONS
Any doctor whose thesis is written in French or English (in case of another language, please contact AFCP by sending an e-mail to david.langlois@loria.fr) in a French-speaking laboratory and was defended between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2012 may apply. All application is limited to a single edition of the award. Only complete applications will be considered.
APPLICATION
To apply, you must:
(1) Send an e-mail stating your intention to apply with your name, title of the thesis, the name of the supervisor, and the date of defense to: david.langlois@loria.fr. You will receive an acknowledgment.
(2) Upload your thesis manuscript in PDF on the AFCP website server: http://www.afcp-parole.org/spip.php?page=depot_these
(3) Send your complete file on CD containing a single file (named YOURNAME.pdf), and in order: (i) summary of thesis (2 pages), (ii) a list of publications, (ii) scan of thesis reports (manuscript and defence) (iv) a
scan of a letter by your supervisor (v) a CV (with full contact details including email).
At the following address: David Langlois - Bureau C132 - LORIA - Campus Scientifique - BP 239 - 54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy Cedex FRANCE
DATE OF SUBMISSION *************** April 30, 2013 *****************

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The international scientific Committee of the '7th Christian Benoît Award' has completed the evaluation of the applications and has taken a decision. The Winner is

His project aims at developing a system architecture and a demonstrator using the novel, recently developed Furhat robot head. The Furhat robot head integrates facial animation and visual speech synthesis. The goal is to provide a platform for research on situated and multiparty audio-visual interaction.
On behalf of the Association Christian Benoît and of the scientific committee; we would like to congratulate Samer and to thank all the applicants for their works. Many of the applications are of very high quality. We hope that their authors will find other financial supports to achieve their research projects.

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