JOB AD: Hybrid Hidden Markov/Connectionist Models for Speech Recognition

[Tony Robinson]

       [ My apologies if this appears on your screen more than once ]

		 Cambridge University Engineering Department

		  Research Assistant in Speech Recognition

The Speech Group expects to appoint an RA for an ESPRIT project on large
vocabulary speech recognition using hybrid HMM/ANN structures.  Candidates
will have PhD experience in one of these techniques and an interest in C
programming in a parallel environment, joining a multi-nation research
collaboration.  It is expected that the project will start during the
summer 1992, and will last for 15 months with a possible extension to 36
months.  The RA starting date is negotiable.  Salary is age related on RA1A
rates.  Further information and application forms can be obtained from
Mavis Barber, Cambridge University Engineering Department, Trumpington
Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ.  Closing date for applications is 1 June 1992.


Further Particulars

The Speech Group expects to appoint an RA for an ESPRIT project on large
vocabulary speech recognition using hybrid HMM/ANN structures.  The
consortium for this Basic Research Project is: Lernout & Hauspie Speech
Products, Brussels; INESC, Lisbon; CUED, with ICSI (International Computer
Science Institute) Berkeley as sub-contractor.

The baseline structures are the HMM/MLP pioneered by Bourlard (LHS) and
Morgan (ICSI) and the HMM/recurrent NN (RNN) studied by Robinson (CUED).
These will be extended in several ways; by incorporating improvements
analogous to those used in state of the art HMM recognisers; by further
development of the theoretical bases of hybrid classification; by the
development of better acoustic features with enhanced speaker and
communication channel robustness; by the development of better training
procedures; by the investigation of fast speaker adaptation in hybrids. The
project also aims to demonstrate real-time recognisers and their evaluation
against international databases such as used by the DARPA community.  A
major feature of the project will be the use of the RAP, ring array
processor, developed by ICSI, at each site; with further development of
hardware and software tools by ICSI for the project.  The RAP has 16
digital signal processors with a peak performance of 0.5 GFlps.

Applicants should have PhD or equivalent experience in HMMs or ANNs in
speech recognition.  The RAP uses C & C++ in a UNIX environment and
applicants should have relevant experience and an interest in extending
their skills in a parallel environment.  The RA at Cambridge will be mainly
responsible for the development of HMM/RNN structures.

It is expected that the project will start during the summer 1992,
initially for a period of 15 months but with an extension to 36 months.
The starting date for the RA is negotiable.

Further details and application forms from Mavis Barber at Cambridge
University Engineering Department, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ,
mavis at eng.cam.ac.uk


F. Fallside
A.J. Robinson
May 1992