One of the 2006 award winners is Mirjam Ernestus from The Netherlands, who is a prime example of the bridge to the future of European science.
Her EURYI-winning research work is set to develop computational psycholinguistic models of speech production and comprehension that account for the pronunciation variation in spontaneous conversational speech. According to Ernestus one of the possible outcomes of the project could lead to the improvement of speech recognition software.
"We are looking to establish a system that takes into account the characteristics of the language, of the word involved, and of context of that word both the surrounding sentence as well as the topic of conversation in order to improve predictability , " said Ernestus.
Dr. Ernestus, 37, gained her BA and MA in General linguistics, cum laude, from the Free University Amsterdam, and has since pursued her postdoctorate studies at the Max Planck Institute for Psyholinguistics in Nijmegen, where she has extensive experience in PhD supervision.
Also joining her at the event is 32 year-old Dr Nicolas Mano from France who is currently a Research Associate at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas in Austin. The EURYI award will bring him back to France, to carry out his latest research at the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal (CRPP) in Pessac on a miniature membrane-less biofuel cell operating under physiological conditions.
Mano said his project could result in the smallest biofuel cell ever built. It will operate sub-cutaneously (beneath the skin) and will harness the body's own innate chemical energy (ie. an in-vivo source of power) with a footprint and volume compatible with those of the smallest implanted biosensor-transmitter
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Contact: Issam Ahmed
iahmed@esf.org
33-630-168-106
European Science Foundation
4-Oct-2006