Xuedong David Huang (also known as
XD, Simplified Chinese: 黄学东, b. October 20, 1962) is the key person behind Microsoft's speech recognition technologies as well as its VOIP Response Point product line.
In 1978, Huang entered
Hunan UniversityHunan University located in Changsha, Hunan province, is one of the oldest and most important national universities in the People's Republic of China.- History :...
without finishing his high school. He graduated with a B.S. degree in
computer scienceComputer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems. It is frequently described as the systematic study of algorithmic processes that create, describe and transform...
from
Hunan UniversityHunan University located in Changsha, Hunan province, is one of the oldest and most important national universities in the People's Republic of China.- History :...
in 1982, and went on to earn a MS in
computer scienceComputer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems. It is frequently described as the systematic study of algorithmic processes that create, describe and transform...
from
Tsinghua UniversityTsinghua University , is a university in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Tsinghua University was established in 1911, originally under the name “Tsinghua Xuetang”. The school was renamed the "Tsinghua School" in 1912. The university section was founded in 1925 and the name “National Tsinghua...
.
Xuedong David Huang (also known as
XD, Simplified Chinese: 黄学东, b. October 20, 1962) is the key person behind Microsoft's speech recognition technologies as well as its VOIP Response Point product line.
Education
In 1978, Huang entered
Hunan UniversityHunan University located in Changsha, Hunan province, is one of the oldest and most important national universities in the People's Republic of China.- History :...
without finishing his high school. He graduated with a B.S. degree in
computer scienceComputer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems. It is frequently described as the systematic study of algorithmic processes that create, describe and transform...
from
Hunan UniversityHunan University located in Changsha, Hunan province, is one of the oldest and most important national universities in the People's Republic of China.- History :...
in 1982, and went on to earn a MS in
computer scienceComputer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems. It is frequently described as the systematic study of algorithmic processes that create, describe and transform...
from
Tsinghua UniversityTsinghua University , is a university in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Tsinghua University was established in 1911, originally under the name “Tsinghua Xuetang”. The school was renamed the "Tsinghua School" in 1912. The university section was founded in 1925 and the name “National Tsinghua...
. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from
University of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh founded in 1582, is an internationally renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. It is the sixth university to be established in the British Isles, making it one of the ancient universities of the United Kingdom.The university is amongst the...
.
Academic research
He joined the
Carnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since its inception, Carnegie Mellon has grown into a world-renowned institution, with numerous programs that are frequently ranked among the best in the world...
faculty in 1989 and worked with
Raj ReddyDabbala Rajagopal "Raj" Reddy is one of the early pioneers in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and served on the faculty of Stanford and Carnegie Mellon University for over 40 years. He was the founding Director of the Robotics Institute and the Dean of the School of Computer Science ...
and
Kai-Fu LeeKai-Fu Lee is an information technology executive and a computer science researcher.He became the focus of a 2005 legal dispute between Google and Microsoft, his former employer, due to a one-year non-compete agreement that he signed with Microsoft in 2000 when he became its corporate vice...
on speech recognition. At CMU, Huang directed Sphinx-II speech system research that had the best overall performance in every category of DARPA's 1992 benchmarking. He received the 1992 Alan Newell research excellence medal for his leadership in speech recognition .
Huang has co-authored two books:
Hidden Markov Models for Speech Recognition, (1987) and
Spoken Language Processing, Prentic Hall(2000). He became an
IEEE FellowAn IEEE member is elevated to the grade of IEEE Fellow for "unusual distinction in the profession and shall be conferred by the Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest"....
in 2000. Huang received the National Education Commission of China's 1987 Science and Technology Progress Award, IEEE 1993 Speech Processing Best Paper Award. SpeechTek has named him a top 10 leader of the speech industry .
Microsoft
Huang is known as Mr Speech at Microsoft for founding its
speech recognitionSpeech recognition converts spoken words to text. The term "voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to speech recognition where the recognition system is trained to a particular speaker - as is the case for most desktop recognition software, hence there is an aspect of speaker recognition,...
initiatives. Huang is currently general manager of the Communications Innovation Center at Microsoft. He is responsible to bring to market new communications products and services such as
Microsoft Response PointMicrosoft Response Point is an advanced software-based telephone system developed by Microsoft. Response Point, a PBX system targeting small businesses with less than 50 employees, was launched in March 2007, with systems available on the market in the fourth quarter of that year. Response Point is...
, an advanced phone system that received 2009's
Technology of the Year Awards for the best VOIP phone system from the InfoWorld Magazine.
Huang has spent his career helping to advance speech recognition technologies in a variety of capacities. He was the key leader who brought Microsoft's
Speech Application Programming InterfaceThe Speech Application Programming Interface or SAPI is an API developed by Microsoft to allow the use of speech recognition and speech synthesis within Windows applications. To date a number of versions of the API have been released, which have shipped either as part of a Speech SDK, or as part of...
(SAPI) and speech recognition/TTS technologies to the public. From 2000 to 2004, Huang served as general manager of Microsoft's Speech Platforms Group, where he led both the business and engineering teams that shipped
Microsoft Speech ServerThe Microsoft Speech Server is a product from Microsoft designed to allow the authoring and deployment of IVR applications incorporating Speech Recognition, Speech Synthesis and DTMF....
and other voice technologies used in
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces...
,
Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft Office is an office suite of interrelated desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. Microsoft Office was introduced by Microsoft in 1989 for Mac OS, with a version for Windows in 1990...
,
Windows MobileWindows Mobile is a compact operating system developed by Microsoft, and designed for use in smartphones and mobile devices.It is based on Windows CE, and features a suite of basic applications developed using the Microsoft Win32 API. It is designed to be somewhat similar to desktop versions of...
and
Microsoft Exchange ServerMicrosoft Exchange Server is a messaging and collaborative software product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is widely used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure solutions...
.
Hunan University and University of Washington
In addition to his responsibilities at Microsoft, Huang is currently
the Honorary Dean of School of Software Engineering at
Hunan UniversityHunan University located in Changsha, Hunan province, is one of the oldest and most important national universities in the People's Republic of China.- History :...
helping to modernize China's software engineering education. He also serves as an affiliate Professor and is a member of the Industrial Advisory Board of EE at
University of WashingtonUniversity of Washington, founded in 1861, is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. UW is the largest university in the northwestern United States and one of the oldest public universities on the west coast. The university has three campuses, with its flagship campus...
.
TV and books
- Robert MacNeil, William Cran, Robert McCrum (2005). Do You Speak American? page 191-197, Harcourt Trade
- PBS TV: Do You Speak American? 2005
- Xuedong Huang, Alex Acero, Hsiao-Wuen Hon (2001). Spoken Language Processing: a guide to theory, algorithm, and system development, page 1-980. Prentice Hall
- Xuedong D Huang, Yasuo Ariki, Mervyn A Jack (1990). Hidden Markov Models for Speech Recognition, Edinburgh University Press
External links
- Thoughts on Microsoft's Response Point, "ZDNet", Sept. 24, 2008
- Microsoft's Xuedong Huang Delivers Keynote at ITEXPO West, Emphasizes Telephony Ease-of-Use and Describes Future Natural User Interface, Sept. 17, 2008
- Microsoft Bolsters Its VoIP Strategy With Response Point Service Pack, "Information Week", March 24, 2008
- Innovation Spotlight: Q&A With Xuedong Huang On Microsoft Response Point 2007
- Microsoft Launches Breakthrough PBX for SMBs, "EWEEK", March, 2007
- Huang appointed as Hunan University's Honorary Dean of Software School "Hunan University News", Nov 5, 2005
- Microsoft Gets Futuristic With Speech Server 2004 March, 2004
- Microsoft Peppers the Market with Integrated Voice Solutions March, 2004
- Why it's getting easier to talk to your PC "ZDNET", Nov 14, 2002
- The Year Ahead for Microsoft, Microsoft PressPass, Dec 18, 2001
- Speech Recognition in Microsoft Office XP Increases Productivity, Efficiency for Chinese and Japanese Users, Microsoft PressPass, Aug. 16, 2001
- MiPad: Speech Powered Prototype Listens and Learns Microsoft PressPass, May 22, 2000
- Gates demos Microsoft MiPad "ZDNET", Oct 13, 2000
- Microsoft's speech guru Xuedong Huang says that a "conversational interface" will make computing dramatically easier early next century. Newsweek, March 9, 1998
- BEYOND TALKING BARNEY BusinessWeek, Feb 23, 1998
- Talking Face To Interface. Seattle Times, June 1 1997