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Aneesh Joseph is a student at the University of Pretoria busy with his final year in B Eng Computer Engineering. His research involves the development of an automated, telephone-based personal assistant.
Research interests: Next generation networks, integration of telecommunication services with modern software engineering practices.
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Buhle Mkhize is a Software Developer at the CSIR. He obtained a B.Sc. in Computer Science (1995) and a B.Sc.(Hons) in Computer Science (1996) with distinction, both from the University of Durban-Westville. Buhle was employed as a System Specialist at SASOL from 1997 to 1999. He has been involved in Research and Development projects at the CSIR since 2000. Buhle's voice has been used in the development of the first isiZulu Text-To-Speech system.
Research interests: intonation modeling for isiZulu language; pattern recognition.
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Casey Callaghan is a student, currently working in the HLT research group. He obtained a B.Eng in Computer Engineering at the University of Pretoria in 2003, and decided to stay there at least until he could get a masters degree (expected to be in 2005). In pursuit of this aim, he applied for a research project with Prof. Barnard, an action that resulted in his current position in the HLT group. He has not yet published anything, and is currently planning to focus his research on the applicability of neural networks to speech recognition, when used to support some more established technology, i.e. HMMs.
Research interests: Neural networks, other forms of AI, mathematics. |
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Danie Joubert is a student at the University of Pretoria. He is busy with his final year in Computer Engineering. Danie’s research project is about VoIP performance prediction.
Research interests: Speech recognition as a measure of quality for a VoIP transmission.
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Etienne Gouws is a student at the University of Pretoria. He completed his B.Eng in Computer Engineering at the University of Pretoria in 2003. He is currently doing a B.Eng (Hons) in Computer Engineering with the purpose of starting his Masters in 2005. He was offered a position in the HLT group by Prof. E Barnard to further research in speech recognition, user recognition and speech syntheses, and he gladly accepted. He is planning to focus his research on accent detection for the adaptation of speech recognition models.
Research interests: Neural networks, Speech recognition models
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Francois Aucamp obtained his B.Eng in Computer Engineering at the University of Pretoria in 2004. His current work for the HLT Research Group involves the creation of a graphical development environment for speech-based systems running on the Asterisk open-source PBX. He has also assisted in the development of the DictonaryMaker system.
Research interests: Human-computer interfaces, C++ and cryptography, speech synthesis
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Gerrit Botha is a researcher in the HLT research group. He obtained his B.Eng in Computer Engineering at the University of Pretoria in 2003. In 2004 he worked as a software developer in industry. He joined the HLT group in 2005 and is currently busy doing research on speech synthesizers. He plans to do his honors in 2006.
Research interests: speech synthesis, pattern recognition.
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Gugu Dladla is working as an intern in the HLT research group. She is a fourth year student at Tshwane University of Technology, studying towards a BTECH in Information Technology, majoring in Software Development.
Research interests: speech recognition systems and software engineering and design methods.
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Hein Wilson is a final year B.Eng (Computer Engineering) student at the University of Pretoria. His final year project is concerned with human factors involved in interactive voice response systems, specifically the development of an experimental platform to analyse the effectiveness of such systems.
Research interests: Usability issues in IVR. |
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Jimmy-James Masalesa is currently a Project Manager in the HLT Research Group. He has worked as a Researcher at the Research Unit for Experimental Phonology of the University of Stellenbosch, Language Practitioner at the Department of Arts and Culture and also as the Head of the Status Language Planning division of the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB). He holds an Honours degree in African Languages studies from the University of Stellenbosch.
Research interests: Electronic linguistic resource (both speech and text) creation as a crucial factor in the development of HLT applications.
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Kagiso Chikane is currently the Centre Manager of the Meraka Institute. She has a long history of involvement in HLT Research, starting at the CSIR in 2002 as the HLT co-ordinator (prior to the establishment of the HLT Research Group). A linguist at heart, Kagiso holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of the North, Pietersburg, a Bachelor of Education (Honours) Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, a Bachelor of Arts Honours from the University of South Africa, Pretoria and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin- Madison, USA. Kagiso has held various teaching and lecturing positions, including as a lecturer at Vista University, Soweto Campus (1984-2001) and Boston University, Massachusetts (1995). Kagiso has been a member of the Setswana National Language Body (PANSALB committee) since 2002 and currently represents the CSIR on the National HLT Steering Committee of the Department of Arts and Culture.
Research interests: Phonology and Morphology
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Kobus Wolvaardt is a Computer Engineering student (BEng Hons), working in the HLT research group. He obtained his B.Eng in Computer Engineering at the University of Pretoria in 2003. He would like to do a masters degree in AI specializing in language analisis. His work at the HLT research group has been with HTK (a hidden Markov model training toolkit) and speech recognition.
Research interests: language analysis; newspaper layout using AI
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Madelaine Plauché is a research associate of the HLT Research Group. She received her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Berkeley, California on the perception and confusion of speech sounds. More recently, she has worked on User Interface Design for developing regions, where literacy and language factors require innovative approaches to traditional Human Computer Interaction methodologies. Currently based in the USA, Madelaine is a key contributor on many of the group’s research projects, especially with regard to the human factors in speech-based interfaces.
Research interests: phonetics; applications of speech and language technologies; user interface design, human factors.
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Marina de Villiers is employed as Office Project Manager. In- and external marketing of the HLT Research Group as well as managing the group's administrative systems are her key focus areas. She holds a BA Communications Degree (UOFS) and an Honors in German (UP).
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Miranda van Deventer is an HLT Research Assistant at the CSIR. She obtained a B.Sc. in Human Physiology (1999) and a BA.(Hons) in Psychology (2000) both from the University of Pretoria; and has been working at the CSIR since 2000. Her interests lie in Experimental Psychology: sensation, perception, learning, emotion, conditioning and motivation and the effect this has on human computer interaction; and Human Factors: the careful analysis of perception, response time, procedures, and ergonomics in contributing to the design of systems and applications. She loves cultural diversity and is interested in how people interact with others and their environment. As an adrenaline junky, she enjoys hikes, horse riding and various outdoor activities.
Research interests: Experimental psychology, human factors in engineering.
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Mark Zsilavecz is a software developer in the HLT Research group at the Meraka Institute. He obtained is B.Eng in Computer Engineering at the University of Pretoria in 2005. He joined the CSIR in 2006.
Research interests: automatic speech recognition and general purpose use of GPUs.
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Natasha Govender is a software developer at the CSIR's IST center and a member of the HLT research group. She obtained both her B.Sc. in Computer Science (2000) and B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science (2001) from the University of Natal, and has been working at the CSIR since 2002. Natasha is currently studying for her Masters in Computer Engineering at the University of Pretoria. Her area of research focuses on pitch extraction for various African languages.
Research Interests: Speech recognition
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Nicholas Zulu is a PhD student working in the HLT research group. He obtained his B.Sc (Electrical Engineering) in 2003 and completed his M.Sc (Electrical Engineering) in 2005 at the University of Cape Town. He joined the HLT group in 2006. Nicholas is currently looking into methods, and metrics for measuring language and dialect distance, speech recognition and ASR data analysis.
Research interests: Speech acquisition, speaker recognition, language identification and speech recognition.
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Olga Martirosian. Olga is a masters student at HLT. She obtained her B Eng (Computer Engineering) in 2006. Her final year project involved research into detecting emotion in speech. She is currently completing her M Eng (Computer Engineering), focusing on pronunciation modelling for Standard South African English. She has performed dictionary verification for South Africa’s 11 language’ pronunciation dictionaries. She has also been involved in human factor research and call centre analysis.
Research interests: pronunciation modelling, dictionary verification, emotion detection, user interface design, call centre improvement.
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Ronald Kato is currently working with the HLT research group on a masters thesis related to statistical pattern recognition. He received his B.Eng (Hons) degree in Computer Engineering in 2007 from the University of Pretoria. He is currently enrolled at the University of Pretoria on a part-time basis
Research interests: Statistical machine translation, Pattern Recognition, Signal processing.
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Soogandhree Naidoo is an IT Researcher at the CSIR. She obtained a B.Sc. in Computer Science (2000) and a B.Sc.(Hons) in Computer Science (2001), both from the University of Natal (Durban). Soogandhree has been involved and Research and Development Projects at the CSIR since 2002. Her interests lie in the softer side of computer science, namely the human and cultural factors that influence human- computer interaction. She is currently working on her Masters in this field, specifically focusing on user interaction with telephony systems and the factors that contribute to the usability of such systems. She is also interested in Yoga and shopping (not necessarily in that order).
Research interests: Human factors in HCI.
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Sunnyboy Kabini completed his B.Eng in Computer Engineering at the University of Pretoria in 2004. He would like to do B.Eng(Hons) in Computer Engineering in 2005. His work at HLT research group has been with HTK and speech recognition.
Research interests: pattern recognition, speech recognition/synthesis |
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Surel Weideman obtained her B.Eng in Computer Engineering at the University of Pretoria in 2004. Her work at the HLT research group includes the research into and development of corpora for the eleven official languages of South Africa.
Research interests: Corpora for minority languages; Statistical approaches to language identification |
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Victor Zimuis currently working with the HLT research group on a masters thesis related to morphological analysis. He received his B.Eng degree in Computer Engineering in 2004 from the University of Pretoria. He is currently enrolled at the University of Pretoria on a part-time basis.
Research interests: Automated Morphology, Intonation Modeling, and designing bootstrapping solutions (for any language resource)
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Watson Lekalake is currently an intern at CSIR / MERAKA Inst. / HLT Research Group. He completed his BSc degree majoring in Computational & Applied Mathematics and Linguistics at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Research interests: Natural Language Processing (NLP), Mathematical Linguistics and Poetry.
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Willie Smit is a Ph.D. student enrolled at the University of Pretoria. His Ph.D. focuses on the application of sparse coding to speech recognition. He obtained a B.Eng in 1998 and an M.Eng in 2000 both in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pretoria.
Research interests: efficient coding; classification of spike trains; spiking neural networks.
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Current people |
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Contact: Karen Calteaux +27 12 841 2614/3028 kcalteaux@csir.co.za
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| Copyright © Meraka Institute 2007 |
