Dear ISCA members:

Welcome to the next installment of ISCApad for July 2020!   There are a number of updates in this edition from the community for meetings, job openings, theses, and announcements, and of course the main topic on everyone’s mind is COVID-19 Pandemic and how that’s effecting people all over the world.

COVID-19/Coronavirus outbreak is still impacting the world – and many of our ISCA colleagues, researchers and friends. While some countries have recognized and adopted best practices including practicing safe social distancing and the use of masks, others (especially the USA) have completely fallen behind and struggling to work out ways to stop the spread. Here, the science and medical experts with the proper experience know the right steps, even if unfortunately politicians and the government struggle to recognize the seriousness of this worldwide pandemic. At one point many months ago, I had suggested as an option that a USA city might be an alternative location for Interspeeh-2020 if a physical conference could not take place there. I’m very happy that through careful discussions between the IS-2020 committee and ISCA Board, we had clear agreement that staying in Shanghai and allowing options for physical/virtual vs. moving to another location. If Texas or Florida (USA) had been selected – it clearly would not have been a good decision.

INTERSPEECH-2020: [http://www.interspeech2020.org/] (Oct. 26-29, 2020), while the logistics of Interspeech-2020 will still take place in Shanghai, China, it is becoming increasing complex and difficult to realize a complete physical conference this year. I will emphasize that the no official decision has yet been made, and the INTERSPEECH-2020 Organizing Committee continue to monitor and track developments of COVID-19. The ability to have large numbers of people travel from different parts of the world and participate, are increasingly difficult given travel constraints, long-term safety inside aircraft for international flights, etc. Please watch both ISCA website and Interspeech-2020 website for new updates IS-2020 as well as satellite workshops.

The INTERSPEECH-2020 Technical Program is moving forward. I thank the countless reviewers worldwide who participated and volunteered their valuable time to provide fair, constructive and balanced comments for the authors of more than 2200 papers that were submitted. The Organizing Committee is working to establish the accepted papers and organize sessions.

Again, INTERSPEECH will still take place this fall in Shanghai, China. We will keep all updated via emails, postings on ISCA Facebook & Twitter feeds. For this month, we do not have any new information, other than to say that as we move forward with the INTERSPEECH-2020 technical program, all options continue to be explored and considered. The conference will currently take place on Oct. 26-29, 2020, with tutorials on Oct. 25. The review process timeline is as follows:

• July 24, 2020 Paper acceptance/rejection notification

• Aug 10, 2020 Notification about ISCA Travel Grants

• Aug 24, 2020 Early-bird registration deadline

• Sep 23, 2020 Standard registration deadline

Final decision on the format of INTERSPEECH-2020 will be announced soon, but rest assured that authors who have a paper accepted to INTERSPEECH-2020 will have the option either to attend physically, or to attend remotely. Remote attendance would also be associated with a reduced registration fee.

INTERSPEECH-2020 PROCEEDINGS: In the event that the ISCA INTERSPEECH-2020 physical conference would need to be canceled due to COVID-19, ALL accepted papers will be published in the standard format in the Proceedings of INTERSPEECH-2020 as usual (i.e., including release on ISCA Archive).

Latest Updates: Please keep informed of the latest events on the ISCA Webpage, INTERSPEECH-2020 webpage, and ISCA Facebook and Twitter feeds (@ISCAFOX). Our goal is to ensure a safe and technologically invigorating conference experience.

We look forward to your participation in ISCA and INTERSPEECH-2020! Until the next ISCApad, be safe and stay connected to our community!

John H.L. Hansen (ISCA President)