Dear ISCA members, dear colleagues,

  When you will read this message, we will be very close to the opening of our flagship event: the 2012 Interspeech conference in Portland.

  Before the conference, I want to congratulate Richard, Esther, Jérôme and all the other colleagues who worked hard in order to make 'the best conference ever'. I want to remind all of us that this work came and comes in addition to their normal duties and the fact that it relies on a voluntary basis.

  I know they are all in a difficult period: all the decisions are made, everything is ready but the 'gold proof' will come soon... If they are logically anxious, I have no doubt, looking at the quality of the organisation and the quality of the scientific program, about the success of the conference!

  Interspeech is also the time to honour our colleagues. We will have one ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement, four new ISCA Fellows, two new ISCA distinguished Lecturers and several best paper awards (best journal papers and best Interspeech 2012 student papers).

  I take this opportunity to thank our very successful student volunteers from the ISCA Student Advisory Committee. The SAC organizes two events during Interspeech 2012:  the 'Student Roundtable Lunch' on Tuesday and the 'Students Discover Industrial Career Challenges' on Wednesday.

  Interspeech is also the time to report about the ISCA activities for the past year and to present and discuss the activities for the next year(s).

  As I already explained at several occasions, ISCA is at a crossing point in its long history and the next years will decide about the future of the association.

  Looking at this challenge, we will inaugurate a new format for the General Assembly (Tuesday 18:15 - 19h15). After the presentation of the financial report and a very short overview of ISCA activities, we will present our plan for the future and open an -always fruitful- discussion. I am sure you will all come to the General Assembly!

  See you soon in Portland!

  JF Bonastre

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Congratulations to Professor VICTOR ZUE  - Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA who   has been awarded the 

                 IEEE JAMES L. FLANAGAN SPEECH AND AUDIO PROCESSING AWARD

for his pioneering contributions to acoustic phonetics and conversational spoken- language systems.

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Following the recent surge of interest for robust speech processing algorithms and devices both in the academia and in the industry, we are proposing to create an ISCA special interest group (SIG) on robust speech processing.

What about?
- robustness to noise, reverberation, inter- and intra-speaker variability, speaking style...
- application to speech enhancement, ASR, speaker recognition...

What for?
- facilitate communication between us,
- share problems, resources and good practices,
- promote our area within the larger communities involved (speech, audio, machine learning) and the industry,
- support initiatives (special sessions, workshops, challenges, etc),
- ultimately increase funding and foster new research directions.

Before submitting a formal proposal to ISCA, we would like to collect feedback from the community about the various possible choices and directions and gather a list of interested colleagues.

If you are interested, we invite you to come and meet us during Interspeech on Monday September 10 at 18:15 in the Pavilion East room on the Plaza Level at the Hilton. If you cannot attend this meeting, just email us to be counted in.

Best regards,

Ramón Fernandez Astudillo - L2F INESC-ID Lisboa, Portugal
Emmanuel Vincent - INRIA, France

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ISCA is really glad to let you know that its training division has launched 

two important programs: 

1. ISCA Training Schools
       There is even a call for the next ISCA Summer School with
deadline April 15th
2. ISCA Lectures
       This is an open call.

The above programs are described in full details:
http://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/index.php/outreach/training

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CALL FOR OFFICER NOMINATIONS

ISCA SPEECH PROSODY SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP (SPRoSIG)

SProSIG is now accepting nominations for SIG President, Liaison, Treasurer, and Secretary.  Officers nominated and elected to 

these positions will hold office from 2012-2014.  Candidates must be nominated by two members, must accept nomination, and 

must be members in good standing of ISCA. 

 As none of the current SProSIG officers have exceeded the term limits specified in the constitution, all current officers are eligible

 for re-election.

Nominations should be mailed to Past President Daniel Hirst, daniel.hirst@lpl-aix.fr, by midnight on September 7, 2012. 

 If fewer than five nominations are received by September 7, then the nominated candidates will take office without a formal

 election.

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