Speech Science Forum -- Industry Panel

Elise completed her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL, where she researched familiar voice processing. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher before joining the Faculty Fellowship programme, which helps academics to transition into data science careers. Now a full-time data scientist at Faculty, she applies her experience in machine learning and statistics to solving problems in the retail sector.

Manuel Pariente is an AI Engineer with a passionate mission: to ensure that people suffering from hearing loss can maintain vital social connections. He co-founded Pulse Audition, a pioneering startup that develops intelligent hearing glasses designed to enhance speech intelligibility in challenging, noisy environments, which was acquired by EssilorLuxottica in 2024. Before devoting his time to Pulse Audition, Manuel studied Physics, Cognitive Sciences, Artificial Intelligence and Signal Processing at Ecole Normale Supérieure and IRCAM, and conducted a PhD in AI-based speech enhancement at INRIA. Manuel’s vision and motivation is to employ technology as a force for societal betterment.

Ryan Peters is a Senior Learning Scientist at Duolingo with a PhD in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences from Purdue University. His research has largely focused on attention and learning in first and second language acquisition

I studied Audio Engineering and Electrical Engineering in Graz, Austria and worked at the Acoustics Research Institute in Vienna. After that, I did my PhD in Speech & Hearing Science at UCL SHaPS for which I conducted multiple studies investigating speech-in-noise perception in children with auditory processing disorder. Since two years I'm working as a Research Engineer at MED-EL where I am mainly involved in conducting research studies and in signal processing.