Dear ISCA members:

Welcome to the next installment of the ISCApad for August 2018!  This edition has a number of updates from the community including upcoming meetings, job openings, theses, and announcements.

Welcome to New and Renewing Members 2018: I would like to officially welcome all new members to the ISCA Community who signed up as part of their ISCA INTERSPEECH-2018 participation. ISCA membership provides you with opportunities to stay connected with the speech and language community, and we very much appreciate your support and participation in our organization!

For those members who have renewed their membership, a sincere thanks for your continued support and participation in ISCA. As the largest professional organization dedicated to speech and language based communications, we strive to provide both educational and professional support and opportunities to our membership. We hope to see all of you at Interspeech and the numerous satellite workshops and SIGS (Special Interest Group) sponsored events in this coming year.

Interspeech-2018: [http://www.interspeech2018.org/] is now only one month away and will take place September 2-6, 2018, at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC), Hyderabad, India, with the theme being: Speech Research for Emerging Markets in Multilingual Societies. This is the flagship conference for ISCA, and represents a unique opportunity for the world’s leading researchers to come together to exchange ideas and see the latest advancements in science, technology, and innovation in the field of speech and language based communications. Approximately 1688 paper submissions were originally received, with 1398 receiving 3-5 reviews each for final decisions to the technical program (which is now online). Interspeech continues to be a truly international conference, with submissions received from over 60 countries.

Keynote/Plenary Speakers: four internationally recognized invited speakers will give keynote addresses for Interspeech-2018, providing a balance across both speech/language science and technology:

• Bishnu S Atal (ISCA Medallist, USA)

• Helen Meng (Chinese University of Honkong)

• Jacqueline Vaissiere ( Phonetics and Phonology Laboratory at Paris)

• Herve Bourlard (IDIAP Switzerland)

ISCA Awards: ISCA will also be recognizing the tremendous contributions from two of our own. First, Dr. Bishnu Atal will be the recipient of the ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement 2018 in recognition of “Pioneering contributions to speech coding and speech analysis.” Also, Prof. Christian Wellekens will be awarded the ISCA Medal for Special Service, in recognition of his extraordinary service contributions including championing the ISCApad as the primary mechanism for information dissemination for the ISCA community.

INTERSPEECH-2018 Sponsors: As ISCA President, I specifically want to recognize and thank those organizations that are providing sponsorship support for INTERSPEECH. Since ISCA is a non-profit organization, such sponsorship allows for organizers to provide increased support for student participation, as well as enriching the educational and professional experience those attending will receive at the meeting. MANY thanks to each of you!

• Founding sponsor: Amazon Alexa

• Platinum sponsor: Apple, Baidu, Facebook, Microsoft

• Diamond sponsor: JD.COM, Xiaomi, Samsung, Uniphore,

• Gold sponsor: Google, Qualcomm, IBM Research AI, Sogou, Yahoo Japan

• Silver sponsor: NVidia, Adobe

• Bronze sponsor: GoVivace, Vignan University, Ministry of Electronics & Info. Tech. (Gov. of India)

• Supporters: BVRIT, AIISH Mysore, IISc, IIT-Madras, Univ. of Washington, IIT-Mandi, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Tirupati, IIIT-Hyderabad, Geetanjali College of Engineering and Technology, Decibells Acoustics, Sundar Associates

The Interspeech-2018 organizers have been updating information concerning registration, accommodations, transportation, etc. on their website (www.interspeech2018.org ) continuously for participants.

NOTE: Please note that free shuttle bus service (every 10 minutes) will be arranged by the IS-18 organizers during Sept 3-6, 2018, for pick up and drop from hotels to the Hyderabad Convention Center venue and back, both in the morning and evening from most major hotels within 10km of the venue.

The INTERSPEECH-2018 Organizing Committee has worked extensively to address many aspects to ensure this will be a successful experience for all attendees. Again, this is the first time Interspeech will be held in India, and it promises to be a great opportunity to experience the diversity of speech and language processing in a country that manages daily life with 122 major languages.

As always, we welcome feedback and input from the ISCA community – if you have suggestions for our society or want to be involved, please let us know!

We look forward to your participation in ISCA and Interspeech-2018!

John H.L. Hansen, ISCA President