Dear ISCA Members,

May 2013 is an important moment for ISCA. It is the end of our board
election process and, as I said previously, one of our largest elections
with nine available posts.

I am happy to say that these elections were a big success, with 28
candidates and 596 ballots. The participation was significantly
higher than for the last elections (2011), both in terms of candidates
and in number of ballots.

I want to congratulate the nine newly elected ISCA board members (in
alphabetical order):
Gérard BAILLY
Nick CAMPBELL
Martin COOKE
Mark HASEGAWA-JOHNSON
Hynek HERMANSKY
Keikichi HIROSE
Kate KNILL
Haizhou LI
Douglas O'SHAUGHNESSY

Welcome to the ISCA board!

I want also to thank again the 19 other candidates. You demonstrated
that ISCA will have in the near future several good and motivated
candidates able to join the board (the next elections will come soon,
in only two years).

ISCA has also elected two new Distinguish Lecturers for 2013, nominated
by the ISCA board after a selection process driven by the DL committee
chaired by Julia Hirschberg and under the supervision of Satoshi
Nakamura. Congratulations to Michael Riley and Hynek Hermansky, our two
new ISCA DLs!.

Finally, I want to take advantage of this ISCA President's message, one
of the last for me, in order to come back to one of the points I
mentioned during the last ISCA General Assembly in Portland: we talk
about the idea to see ISCA emphasizing its role as 'a technical
authority for society' (see the ISCA GA slides on the ISCA web:
http://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/files/ISCA_GA_IS2012_V2b.pptx), and
there is a quite large consensus on this general idea even if, to be
honest, nobody knows exactly how to reach such an objective...

Nevertheless, according to me, this objective is really important and
should take a larger place in ISCA activities. At the world level,
Research & University are clearly crossing difficult times, for example
regarding their funding. However, you should not see the forest for the
trees... Funding is of course important but is not the only difficulty
or danger and, maybe, not the most important one. Looking at some recent
events all around the world, it is clear that the place of science (view
as the conservation and the extension of the knowledge) in the human
society as well as the place of scientists are not settled for
eternity...

Like a majority of us, I am working as volunteer for ISCA, for different
scientific events, for different journals, for PhD defenses and for
several committees because, for me, science is one of the mandatory keys
for a positive future of the world. And, for me, science is universal,
has no borders and should not be driven by political or commercial
constraints. When I am looking at all the members who are dedicating a
significant part of their time to ISCA, independently of their
countries, of their positions in academia or private world and of their
individual beliefs, I am sure that we ISCA members are all sharing the
same views about science.

Moreover, a scientific international association like ISCA is not only a
useful organization able to take in charge logistic considerations, like
for organizing conferences, ISCA has a moral personality and should take
all the corresponding responsibilities. If ISCA, with other
scientific associations, is not taking seriously this role, is not
explaining what science is for us, is not explaining the importance for
the future to maintain and to develop this idea of science, who will do
it for us? Oh yes, I am realistic and I am not sure about our weight in
the driving of the world... But I am sure of where is our moral
obligation... And I am also sure that what we are defending, how each of us is
speaking, as a moral person as well as individual scientist, is at
least as important as the targeted objective.

Best
JF Bonastre
ISCA President
 


 

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Seventh Christian Benoît Award

Deadline May 20th, 2013

The Christian Benoît Award is delivered periodically by the Association Christian Benoit (**). It is given to promising young scientists in the domain of SPEECH and FACE-TO-FACE COMMUNICATION. It can concern basic or applied research projects.

The Award provides the elected scientist with financial support for the development of a short-term research project that

(1) illustrates concretely the achievements of her/his research work

(2) could help promoting this work in the scientific community and to Grant Agencies

(3) gives an overall view of the state of the art in the research domain.

The proposed research project can have the form of a demonstrator, a technical product or of a pedagogical multi-media product (Movie, Web-site, interactive software…).

The Award is valued at 7,500 Euros(*).

The commitments of the elected scientist are:

--  to attend the Interspeech2013 Conference in Lyon, France

--  to deliver the final product of the project within 2 years

-- to present her/his results in a workshop such as, among others, AVSP, ISSP, or SpeechProsody.

In the application, the candidate should provide

-- a statement of research interests,

-- a detailed curriculum vitae

-- a description of the proposed short-term research project. The description should include a presentation of the scientific and/or pedagogical objectives and of the methodological aspects, a link with the former research work of the applicant, as well as a detailed description of the provisional budget.

Applications will be evaluated by an international committee including experts in the field of Speech and Face-to-Face communications and representatives of the Institutions supporting the award.

Applications should be sent to

Pascal Perrier: Pascal.Perrier@gipsa-lab.grenoble-inp.fr

before Monday April 29^th, 2013

. Electronic submissions are mandatory.

The successful candidate will be notified by June 10^, 2013. The Award will be delivered at the Interspeech 2013 Conference in Lyon (France) (http://www.interspeech2013.org/

For further information, please contact Pascal Perrier.

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 Dear members of ISCA,

All voters in the upcoming election for the ISCA Board must be active members in 2013.

 Please note that a 'yearly renewal' at ISCA does not actually give a 12-month term. 

To simplify administration, the ISCA Board decided in 2002 to have all memberships 

end either on June 30 or Dec. 31, which means that any given renewal lasts a variable 

duration (8-14 months) depending on when the renewal occurs; see:

 http://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/index.php/membership/251 

All those who paid their fees via registration at Interspeech-2012 are active ISCA 

members till June 30, 2013. However, those who paid a yearly renewal early in 2012

 must renew for 2013 to render their account active. We invite you to verify your status:

 http://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/iscamember/list 

With your member number XXXX, you can retrieve a forgotten password:

 http://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/iscamember/forget 

We hope you will be participating in this year's election, which is expected to start 

next week and end on April 30th. All ISCA members will get an invitation email to vote.

 Best regards, 

Douglas O'Shaughnessy ISCA Secretary 

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Video archives are available in 

http://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/index.php/archive/video-archive 

where keynote speeches from IS 2007, 2010 and 2011 can be seen. Very soon we will have 

the material for IS 2012 as well.

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CALL FOR CANDIDATES
AFCP THESIS PRIZE 2012

Since 2004, the French-speaking Association for Speech Communication (AFCP - http://www.afcp-parole.org/) awards
an annual scientific prize for an excellent thesis to promote research in spoken communication, basic or applied, in the fields of Computer Science, Humanities, Social Sciences and Life Sciences (see http://www.afcp-parole.org/spip.php?rubrique172 for past laureates). This award supports and disseminates the work of young researchers.
The prize is awarded by a jury composed of researchers from the elected board of AFCP (http://www.afcp-parole.org/spip.php?article1718). It will be officially presented at the JEP conference, in June 2014.
The winner will receive the sum of 500 euros and will be invited to present his/her work to the community of spoken communication. Moreover his/her thesis will be published as a book in the collection 'Parole' (Speech) (published by CIPA).

 The thesis can be written in English provided it comes from a French speaking laboratory.
CALENDAR
Deadline of submission: 30 April 2013
AFCP jury's decision: 30 September 2013 Award ceremony: JEP 2014
CONDITIONS
Any doctor whose thesis is written in French or English (in case of another language, please contact AFCP by sending an e-mail to david.langlois@loria.fr) in a French-speaking laboratory and was defended between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2012 may apply. All application is limited to a single edition of the award. Only complete applications will be considered.
APPLICATION
To apply, you must:
(1) Send an e-mail stating your intention to apply with your name, title of the thesis, the name of the supervisor, and the date of defense to: david.langlois@loria.fr. You will receive an acknowledgment.
(2) Upload your thesis manuscript in PDF on the AFCP website server: http://www.afcp-parole.org/spip.php?page=depot_these
(3) Send your complete file on CD containing a single file (named YOURNAME.pdf), and in order: (i) summary of thesis (2 pages), (ii) a list of publications, (ii) scan of thesis reports (manuscript and defence) (iv) a
scan of a letter by your supervisor (v) a CV (with full contact details including email).
At the following address: David Langlois - Bureau C132 - LORIA - Campus Scientifique - BP 239 - 54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy Cedex FRANCE
DATE OF SUBMISSION *************** April 30, 2013 *****************

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