Steven Wegmann Is New Leader of Speech Group

Speech Group Leader Steven WegmannJanuary 23. 2013
ICSI is pleased to announce that, as of January 1, 2013, Steven Wegmann is the new leader of the ICSI Speech Group. Professor Nelson Morgan, the founder and leader of the group for more than 24 years, will be focusing on research activities, passing on the leadership of the team to Wegmann.

“Morgan has led this group for 24 years and it's in great shape,” Wegmann said. “I'm honored to take on this role and excited about the research that we as a group are undertaking.”

After earlier collaboration with Morgan and his team, Wegmann formally joined the group in 2011. For nearly two decades prior to that, he pursued speech research at companies such as Dragon, VoiceSignal, and Nuance. He received a PhD in mathematics from the University of Warwick, and his early work was in algebraic topology. Wegmann’s recent research interest is in the analysis of the failings of statistical models commonly used in speech recognition.

“Steve Wegmann brings to the Speech Group experience in industry and a keen mind,” said ICSI Director and CEO Roberto Pieraccini. “We are also excited to see Morgan's return to a research role after leading the group for more than 20 years.”