Oct. 5, 2020

Dear ISCA members:

Welcome to the next installment of the ISCApad – for which I am including my message for October 2020.   In this issue you will find updates for meetings, job postings, and announcements. COVID-19 pandemic continues to impacts the world, so please do all you can to ensure the safety of yourselves, colleagues, family and friends. Research and advancements in the field of speech communication, and especially supporting our families, friends and colleagues is even more critical in the current times we are all facing for our society.

INTERSPEECH-2020: [http://www.interspeech2020.org/] (Oct. 25-29, 2020)

Technical Program & Papers: the INTERSPEECH-2020 Technical Program Committee has finalized the technical program with our upcoming ONLINE CONFERENCE. Careful planning has gone in to the logistics of coordinating a worldwide participation for our membership, ensuring balanced time participation across the globe with a majority of three major continental regions (Europe, North/South America, Asia/Australia). As I previously noted last month, IS-2020 received 2140 paper submissions, and has now finalized a total of 1020 conference paper acceptances which include all technical areas as well as approved special sessions. An overall Program-at-a-Glance with time zones can be found a this website: http://www.interspeech2020.org/Program/Program/. The Conference will be run with a number of parallel Zoom Rooms – and there will be an Opening Ceremony, ISCA General Assembly (presentation and overview of the state of our society including finances), Technical Sessions, and Closing Ceremony. I have included brief snapshots here for the 5-day technical program (including Tutorial day, 4 program days), along with world time zones (see the weblink above for details).

PAPER Oral Presentations: For Interspeech-2020, all accepted papers will be oral (i.e., no distinction between oral and poster presentations). By now, you should have completed your 90-sec and 15min presentation videos. The 90 sec (1.5min) videos will be played as part of the main program for each session – and the full 15min presentations will be made available to all attendees approximately 7-10 days before the conference for you to see presentations in detail. During all Oral Sessions, the 90sec overviews will be presented followed by a Q&A session for each paper. So, please take time view the full presentations beforehand and join in on the session for overviews and Q&A for each paper.

Keynote Speakers: This year, there will be four keynote presentations from world recognized experts in the fields of speech communication. These presentations will be from the follow speakers:

• Janet B. Pierrehumbert, University of Oxford (recipient of the ISCA Scientific Medal)

• Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, Carnegie Mellon University

• Lin-shan Lee, National Taiwan University

• Shehzad Mevawalla, Amazon Alexa

We thank these distinguished researchers for their contributions to the technical program for Interspeech-2020 and look forward to their presentations and follow-on Q&A sessions.

2020 ISCA MEDAL FOR SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT:

I again note here and congratulate the recipient of the 2020 ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement: Prof. Janet Pierrehumbert (Oxford e-Research Centre; Oxford Univ.): “For contributions to Phonology”!

This is the highest ISCA award for science achievement, and certainly well deserved for the remarkable contributions Prof. Pierrehumbert has made to the field of speech communications, and in particular to Phonology.

ISCA Special Service Medal: This year, the ISCA Board has been spending time to review the impact of a number of individuals for our society. While ISCA was born out of the combined collaborative efforts of two previous societies, ESCA – European Speech Communication Association, and PC-ICSLP: The Permanent Council of the Inter. Conf. on Spoken Language Processing. ISCA is now a worldwide organization dedicated to the advancement of research, education, training, and understanding of all forms of speech communications for all people. Since our inception in 2000, we have only awarded the ISCA Special Service Medal four times, in part because the primary focus has been on service for ISCA. However, as our society has grown, service has had to take on a wider range of activities, opportunities, and commitments to support our membership. As such, the ISCA Board has reviewed the remarkable service, leadership and educational contributions made by a number of our ISCA members, and this year we will be recognizing four recipients this year who will each receive the 2020 ISCA Special Service Medal. As a non-profit society, the technical/scientific impact, research, and educational accomplishments come from our community of volunteers. Please join me in congratulating this year’s recipients, as we pay special recognition to these noteworthy contributors at the INTERSPEECH-2020 conference.

 Prof. Isabel Trancoso: “For sustained service for ISCA and the Speech Communication community in terms of leadership, outreach and society recognition”

 Prof. Julia Hirschberg: “For help in shaping the Speech Communication community and advancing gender diversity in terms of membership and recognition in the field of speech communication”

 Prof. Roger K. Moore: “For service in the establishment, leadership, and international growth of ISCA”

 Prof. Sadaoki Furui: “For inspiring leadership and building bridges across the international Speech Communication community”

 We hope to see you all at INTERSPEECH-2020 later this October 2020. Until next month, stay safe and stay connected to our community!

John H.L. Hansen (ISCA President)  President)