Call for Proposals - ASRU 2021

Jason Williams, Kyu Jeong Han, Raul Fernandez

2020 IEEE SLTC Workshop Sub-Committee

Originally Posted January 2020
Updated May 2020

Updates: 

• In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, we ask that proposals include information about how they would handle the situation where the COVID-19 outbreak was still on-going at the time of ASRU 2021 (typically, December 2021), and it was necessary to scale back the event, or if it were not possible to hold an in-person event.
• Previously we had invited proposal presentations to the SLTC at ICASSP 2020.  Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, ICASSP 2020 was changed to a virtual event.  Therefore, we will instead provide written feedback to proposals received by 17 April 2020.
• The deadline for final proposals is Friday, June 12, 2020.  The original call listed Friday June 8, 2020 which is not a valid date.

Following on the success of the bi-annual ASRU workshop over the past few decades, the IEEE Speech and Language Technical Committee invites proposals to host the 2021 IEEE Workshop on Automatic Speech Recognition and Understanding (ASRU-2021). Past ASRU workshops have fostered a collegiate atmosphere through a thoughtful selection of venues, thus offering a unique opportunity for researchers to interact and learn.

The proposal should include the information outlined below.

• Workshop location and practicalities
  • ​Geographical location
  • Workshop venue (facilities, meeting rooms, network access during the workshop, audio/visual equipment)
    • Capacity of the venue.  We estimate 400-600+ attendees.  ASRU 2019 had space for 450 participants, and sold out.
  • Accommodation -- hotel availability and pricing
  • Meals
  • Transportation options -- major airports, logistics, visas
  • Climate
• Approximate workshop dates
  • Previous workshops have been held in the month of December
  • Status of venue -- whether workshop dates are being held pending IEEE SLTC selection  
• Approximate total cost to participants to attend, including accommodation, meals, and registration fees.
• Estimated budget for 400-600+ participants and expected sponsorships, including venue costs, administration, banquet, coffee breaks, publication costs, etc. 
• Committee Personnel
  • General chair(s)
  • Technical chairs
  • Local arrangements chair(s)
  • Other committee members and roles
• Tentative program
  • Dates for paper submission, notification of acceptance, proposals for demonstrations, early registration
  • Reception, talks, posters, demo session, banquet, etc.
  • Substantial program additions/changes vs. past instances of ASRU 

The deadline for proposals is Friday, June 12, 2020.  Send proposals and questions to the workshop sub-committee: Jason Williams (jdw@alumni.princeton.edu), Raul Fernandez (fernanra@us.ibm.com), and Kyu Jeong Han (kyuhan215@gmail.com).  In June, the IEEE SLTC will review proposals, and selection results are expected by July 13, 2020.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal, we encourage you to contact the workshop sub-committee in advance of submitting a proposal.  They can provide an example of a past successful proposal and example budget. Further, proposers who make contact before 17 April 2020 may be invited to briefly present in-person at the annual IEEE SLTC meeting at ICASSP 2020, 4-8 May 2020, in Barcelona, Spain, to obtain feedback from the SLTC (https://2020.ieeeicassp.org/).  Presentations should be reasonably specific but need not be complete. Note that the SLTC does not have funding available for travel to ICASSP.

The organizers of the ASRU workshop do not have to be SLTC members, and we encourage submissions from all potential organizers.  IEEE SLTC members are welcome to participate on proposals, and the organizing committees of past ASRU events have included many SLTC members.  To maintain fairness of selection, SLTC members who are affiliated with an ASRU 2021 proposal will not participate in the ASRU 2021 selection vote.  Further, the members of the workshops sub-committee may not be affiliated with any ASRU 2021 proposal. Please feel free to distribute this call for proposals far and wide, and invite members of the speech and language community at large to submit a proposal to organize the next ASRU workshop.

For more information on the most recent workshops, please see:

https://asru2019.org for information about ASRU 2019 in Sentosa, Singapore
https://asru2017.org for information about ASRU 2017 in Okinawa, Japan
http://asru2015.org for information about ASRU 2015 in Scottsdale, Arizona
http://asru2013.org for information about ASRU 2013 in Olomouc, Czech Republic

And feel free to contact the workshops sub-committee with questions.

Jason Williams (jdw@alumni.princeton.edu)
Raul Fernandez (fernanra@us.ibm.com)
Kyu Jeong Han (kyuhan215@gmail.com)