Human Language Technology at Lincoln Laboratory: Past, Present, and Future

For more than 50 years, Lincoln Laboratory has produced broad accomplishments in human language technology (HLT) and its applications for national security. The Laboratory has achieved major successes in speech coding and networking, speech recognition, speaker and language recognition, speech enhancement and modification, machine translation, and social network analysis. This seminar will describe these accomplishments in the context of, and as significant contributors to, the worldwide advances that have made HLT ubiquitous today — from use in iPhones to online conferencing and beyond. Also described will be the dominance of data-driven, machine-learning approaches — from Hidden Markov Models to Deep Neural Networks. Highlights of Laboratory accomplishments will be described, including the origins of digital signal processing and its applications for speech, an IEEE Milestone award for the first real-time speech over packet networks, long-time leadership in speaker and language recognition in international evaluations and the successful transition to government applications, leadership in applying neural networks to speech and signal processing, the development and deployment of speech enhancement, and language-learning systems based on speech recognition. This presentation will also emphasize the key roles of data and system evaluation as well as their importance for both HLT and for other artificial intelligence systems.

Biography

As the Leader of the HLT Group, Cliff Weinstein was engaged in initiating, leading, and contributing to a wide range of efforts. He made technical contributions and carried out leadership roles in research and development programs in speech recognition, speech coding, machine translation, speech enhancement, social network analysis, packet speech communications, information assurance and cyber security, integrated voice/data communication networks, digital signal processing, and radar signal processing. He published numerous papers in these areas, six of which were selected for reprint in IEEE Press books. His early work and landmark 1983 paper on packet speech helped lead to Lincoln Laboratory's first IEEE Milestone, awarded in 2011 for First Real-Time Speech Communication on Packet Networks. He coauthored two papers that won IEEE conference Best Paper Awards on the subjects of robust collaborative multicast and research in social network analysis and intent recognition.

Cliff Weinstein joined Lincoln Laboratory as an MIT graduate student in 1967. His doctoral thesis, done at Lincoln Laboratory, addressed the analysis of finite word length effects in digital signal processing. He was promoted to Group Leader in 1979 and was the Leader of the HLT Group and its predecessors from 1979 to 2016, covering a range of technical areas including packet networking, cyber security, and HLT.

Cliff Weinstein is a Fellow of the IEEE. He chaired two IEEE technical committees, was a U.S. representative on the NATO speech research study group, and was a member of the DARPA Information Sciences and Technology panel. Weinstein was recognized with a 2012 MIT Lincoln Laboratory Technical Excellence Award for his nationally recognized leadership in the field of HLT.