Aug. 6, 2021

Dear ISCA members:

Welcome to the next installment of the ISCApad for August 2021. In this monthly message to all our members, I highlight recent activities for ISCA, Interspeech events, upcoming opportunities to contribute/serve/participate in ISCA, and the announcement of ISCA Board for 2021. Please see all the announcements in this issue for more details!

While worldwide the impact of COVID19 Pandemic had been going down earlier this summer thankfully to the emergence of multiple vaccines and people moving to be vaccinated. Unfortunately, the emergence of the Delta Variant has caused an upswing in cases, with many of the non-vaccinated being hospitalized. While we as a society continue to move forward with both scientific and technical advancements, please believe in the science and do all you can to get your vaccine shot as well as encourage others to get vaccinated. I encourage all to take all necessary steps to protect yourselves, family, and friends – please wear a mask (even if our speech characteristics change), get vaccinated, and stay safe!

Interspeech-2021 is less than one month away, and will be held in a hybrid mode with both in-person and remote access. We recognize there are additional travel constraints these days, so we hope to see all either virtually or in-person for INTERSPEECH-2021.

ISCA Board – Elections for 2021:

As reported earlier this summer, we have completed the election process for the ISCA Board for those members completing their service. Again, many thanks to all ISCA Members who participated in both the Nomination and Voting process! We will have another election in 2 years for the next portion of the ISCA Board who will be completing their service. The following 8 individuals were elected to the ISCA Board for 2021-2025 (in alphabetical order). Four have been re-elected for a second term on the ISCA Board (noted as returning Board member).

Nancy Chen, Singapore

(newly elected to ISCA Board)

Mariapaola D'Imperio, USA

(newly elected to ISCA Board)

Phil Green, UK

(re-elected to ISCA Board, 2^nd term)

Joakim Gustafson, Sweden

(newly elected to ISCA Board)

Tatsuya Kawahara, Japan
  (re-elected to ISCA Board, 2^nd term)

S R Mahadeva Prasanna, India

(newly elected to ISCA Board)

Bhuvana Ramabhadran, USA

(re-elected to ISCA Board, 2^nd term)

Odette Scharenborg, Netherlands

(re-elected to ISCA Board, 2^nd term)

Congratulations to all those elected to the ISCA Board this year! We look forward to your contributions and impact for our society.

INTERSPEECH-2021 (Hybrid Virtual/In-Person): [http://www.interspeech2021.org/]

Brno, Czech Republic (Aug. 30 – Sept. 3, 2021)

INTERSPEECH-2021 (IS-21) Committee along with the ISCA Board have worked extensively to complete the technical program for INTERSPEECH. The paper review process being completed, this past month all sessions and session chairs were established. An additional challenging task since IS-21 Technical Committee needed to balance all presenting authors and session chairs with those attending in-person vs. those attending remotely. An extremely challenging task for the INTERSPEECH-2021 Technical Committee, who have consistently worked out effective solutions to navigate these pandemic challenges, all while ensuring the highest technical quality for this Interspeech Conf.

INTERSPEECH-2021 will be “hybrid”, with full information on the website: https://www.interspeech2021.org/. The team has done an excellent job in balancing the experience for both in-person and virtual attendance with adjustments to time schedules with time zones (see the program page on INTERSPEECH-2021 https://www.interspeech2021.org/program website.

Closing: We hope all of you are staying safe, and continue to push forward and contribute to both the science and technology advancements in Speech Communication. We look forward to seeing you all virtually or in person at ISCA INTERSPEECH-2021 this year in Brno, Czech Republic.

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!

Until next month, stay safe and stay connected to our community!

John H.L. Hansen (ISCA President)