Colloquia, Workshops, Dialogues And Tutorials
Summer 2026
NNCI Summer Speaker Series, Co-Sponsored by Cognitive Science Program and Department of Linguistics
Join us for an in-person Summer Speaker Series event featuring Joseph "Yossi" Keshet, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Technion.
Tuesday, August 11, 2026 | 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM CT
Chambers Hall, Ruan Conference Room, 600 Foster St, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Webcast Link (Hybrid)
A light lunch will be provided at the talk. Registration is REQUIRED.
Title: Key Advances in Speech Technology in the Last Five Years
Abstract:
This talk will provide an overview of the major advances in speech technology over the past five years, focusing on three main areas. First, I will discuss automatic speech recognition (ASR), describing the architectures underlying modern systems, their current performance, and the key challenges that remain. Second, I will cover recent developments in speech synthesis, introducing diffusion-based generative models for text-to-speech synthesis, explaining their underlying principles, and discussing their capabilities, limitations, and open research questions. Finally, I will explore the interplay between speech AI and speech science, examining how modern AI models can contribute to our understanding of speech production and perception, and how insights from speech science can, in turn, improve the interpretability and development of these models.
The presentation is intended to be accessible and interactive rather than highly technical. Questions and discussion are encouraged throughout the talk.
Required registration, click here.