The International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) is a non-profit organization and one of the two main professional associations for speech communication science and technology, the other association being the IEEE Signal Processing Society. It currently has over 2000 members.
History ISCA, originally entitled the European Speech Communication Association (ESCA), was formed in 1988. ESCA ran the Eurospeech conference from 1989. The ESCA renamed themselves to the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) in 1999. The ESCA Eurospeech conference and the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP, founded in 1990 by Hiroya Fujisaki) merged between 2000 and 2004 to form the Interspeech conference.
The first ISCA (vs. ESCA) event was the merging of Eurospeech and ICSLP to create ICSLP-Interspeech, held in Beijing, China in 2000. This was followed by Eurospeech-Interspeech, which was held in Aalborg, Denmark in 2001. In 2007, the Eurospeech and ICSLP parts of the conference names were dropped and Interspeech became the sole name of the yearly conference.
Purpose The purpose of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) is to promote the study and application of automatic speech processing, including speech recognition and synthesis, as well as related areas such as speaker recognition and speech compression. The association's activities cover all aspects of speech processing, including computational, linguistic, and theoretical aspects.
The primary goal of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) is to advance the field of automatic speech processing and communication technology through research, education, and collaboration. By promoting the study and application of speech technologies such as speech recognition, speech synthesis, speaker recognition, and speech compression, ISCA aims to foster innovation and development in the areas of human-computer interaction, telecommunications, and multimedia applications.
ISCA serves as a platform for researchers, academics, industry professionals, and students to exchange knowledge, share best practices, and foster interdisciplinary dialogue in the field of speech communication science. Through conferences, workshops, publications, and educational initiatives, ISCA seeks to enhance the understanding of speech processing mechanisms, improve the accuracy and efficiency of speech technologies, and explore new frontiers in the realm of human language communication.
Furthermore, ISCA plays a crucial role in promoting international collaboration and networking among professionals in the speech communication community. By facilitating partnerships and cooperation between individuals and organizations worldwide, ISCA seeks to drive global progress in speech technology research and application, ultimately contributing to the advancement of communication systems, accessibility tools, and interactive interfaces that benefit society as a whole.
Interspeech conference ISCA organizes the Interspeech conference yearly. The 2024 Interspeech conference had to be moved to Kos Island, Greece due to safety issues in the intended Israel.
Year LocationThemeNotes 2000 Beijing, China1st INTERSPEECH event, held as ICSLP 2001 Aalborg, Denmark2nd INTERSPEECH event, held as Eurospeech 2002 Denver, Colorado, US3rd INTERSPEECH event, held as ICSLP 2003 Geneva, Switzerland4th INTERSPEECH event, held as Eurospeech 2004 Jeju Island, South Korea 2005 Lisbon, Portugal 2006 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US 2007 Antwerp, Belgium 2008 Brisbane, Australia 2009 Brighton, United Kingdom 2010 Makuhari, Chiba, Japan 2011 Florence, Italy 2012 Portland, USSpoken Language Processing and Biomedicine 2013 Lyon, FranceSpeech in Life Sciences and Human Societies 2014 SingaporeCelebrate the Diversity of Spoken Languages 2015 Dresden, Germany 2016 San Francisco, US 2017 Stockholm, SwedenSituated interaction 2018 Hyderabad, India 2019 Graz, AustriaCrossroads of Speech and Language 2020 Shanghai, ChinaFully virtual, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2021 Brno, Czechia Hybrid, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2022 Incheon, South KoreaHuman and Humanizing Speech Technology 2023 Dublin, Ireland 2024 Kos Island, GreeceSpeech and BeyondMoved to Kos Island from Jerusalem, Israel. 2025 Rotterdam, the NetherlandsFair and Inclusive Speech Science and Technology 2026 Sydney, Australia
ISCA board The ISCA president for 2023-2025 is Odette Scharenborg. The vice president is Bhuvana Ramabhadran and the other members are professionals in the field.
See also Natural language processing Speech technology
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