Keith Vertanen

 

Darwin College  •  Silver Street  •  Cambridge, CB3 9EU  •  United Kingdom

http://www.keithv.com

 

 

Education:       

 

      Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Physics (in progress)                              2004-present

      University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. 

      Thesis supervised by David MacKay, “Correcting Errors in Speech Dictation”

                                     

      Master of Philosophy, Computer Speech, Text & Internet                              2003-2004

      University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.  Course result A/A+

      Thesis supervised by David MacKay and Steve Young, “Efficient Computer Interfaces Using Continuous Gestures, Language Models, and Speech.”

           

      Master of Science, Computer Science                                                               1997-1999

      Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.  GPA 3.81/4.00

Thesis supervised by Michael Quinn, “A Parallel Implementation of a Fluid Flow Simulation using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics.”

           

Bachelor of Arts, Computer Science (honors), Mathematics                            1992-1997

University of Minnesota-Morris, Morris, Minnesota, USA.  GPA 3.92/4.00

Undergraduate research supervised by Dian Lopez: “Scheduling Problems in a Practical Allocation Model.”

 

Research interests:           

 

My research interest is in spoken and multimodal interfaces for the creation and editing of text.  In particular, I am interested in interfaces for the correction of speech dictation which are faster, less frustrating, and more accessible than existing solutions. 

 

Current research efforts include:

·        Speech Dasher, a multimodal correction interface utilizing speech and gestures. 

·        Improved interfaces and recognition accuracy for spoken dictation corrections. 

·        Evaluating user performance using predictive text or speech interfaces.

 

Publications:

 

Speech and Speech Recognition during Dictation Corrections, Keith Vertanen.  Proceedings of Interspeech 2006, Pittsburgh, PA.

 

 

 

Efficient Computer Interfaces Using Continuous Gestures, Language Models, and Speech, Keith Vertanen. University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory, Technical report UCAM-CL-TR-627, 2005.

 

 

 

A Parallel Implementation of a Fluid Flow Simulation using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics, Keith Vertanen.  MS Project, Oregon State University, 1999.

 

 

 

Scheduling Problems in a Practical Allocation Model, Lisa Hollermann, Tsan-sheng Hsu, Dian Lopez, Keith Vertanen. Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, 1997.

 

Presentations:

 

Practical Results with PPM, COGAIN Camp, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2005.

 

Speech Dasher: An Efficient Interface Using Speech and Gestures, Neural Information Processing Systems, Vancouver, BC, 2004.

 

Sharing the Load: n-Processor Task Allocation, Pi Mu Epsilon Conference, Collegeville, MN, 1996.

 

Awards:

 

Clerk Maxwell Scholarship.  Scholarship awarded by the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge.

 

Overseas Research Student Award.  Awarded in UK-wide competition between overseas students.

 

Katherine Sullivan Scholarship.  The University of Minnesota’s most prestigious study abroad award.  Allowed a year of study in Sweden where I completed a second major in mathematics.

 

University of Minnesota Freshmen Academic Scholarship.  Awarded for academic excellence. 

 

Teaching experience:

 

Instructor, Oregon State University.                                                                  1999

Responsible for planning and teaching undergraduate computer science course.

 

 

Teaching Assistant, Oregon State University.                                                   1997-1999      

Performed teaching and grading tasks for undergraduate and graduate courses in computer science.  Consistently received outstanding written reviews from students.

 

 

English Language Tutor, Oregon State University.                                           1997-1999

Helped international students with their spoken and written English skills.

 

Morris Academic Partnership, University of Minnesota-Morris.                    1995

Provided one-on-one and group tutoring of University students, faculty and staff.

 

Peer Tutor, University of Minnesota-Morris.                                                    1993-1996

Served as an academic tutor, helping students with problems in science and mathematics.

 

Tutor, Imatong House.                                                                                        2002-2003

Tutored Sudanese refugees in various school subjects.

 

Work experience:

 

      Software Consultant, Wildfire Communications                                                2002-2003

  Designed and built new features for Wildfire’s voice-driven virtual assistant.

 

 

      Software Engineer, etrieve, Inc.                                                                         1999-2002

Lead architect, designer and engineer for voice-driven application providing mobile access to enterprise email, contacts, and calendar. 

     •  Designed all dialog flow, prompts and grammars for the application, combining directed dialog

        and natural language for optimal user experience.          

     •  Created hardware and software architecture for the scalable and high availability 24x7 service.

     •  Team leader of the voice application group, including developing and instituting best practices.

     •  Developed patent-pending contextual intelligence features to improve voice presentation of email.

     •  Chartered with insuring best-of-breed usability for etrieve’s voice and data applications.

 

 

      Computer Specialist, In Time                                                                              1990-present

      Responsible for computing and web publishing tasks within the company.

 

     •  Created and maintained company web site, http://www.intimecatalog.com

         •  Designed, built, and documented new accounting database system. 

 

Technical Skills:

·        Speech: VoiceXML, HTK/Sphinx/Nuance/Dragon/Microsoft ASR, L&H /AT&T TTS, VoiceGenie VoiceXML platform, VOS, Dialogic

·        Web: ASP, PHP, HTML, JavaScript, Apache, IIS

·        Database: MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server

·        Networking/tools: XML, SOAP, COM, sockets, Visual Studio

·        Operating systems: Windows, Linux, DOS

 

References:

 

      Furnished upon request.