9702.17

Lit: 9702.18

Date: Thursday, February 13, 1997 14:09:44 MET
From: Yvonne van Holsteijn <elsnet@let.RUU.NL>
Subject: Med: 9702.18: ELSNET Bullet Course on Designing and Testing Spoken Dialogue, Utrecht, 16-18 april

ELSNET Bullet Course on Designing and Testing Spoken Dialogue Systems

April 16 - 18, 1997 Utrecht, The Netherlands

For spoken-dialogue systems to be effective in real-world use, dialogues need to be expertly designed and carefully tested. ELSNET's first bullet course will equip participants with skills in this area. It will provide them with basic knowledge of interaction design, which will enable them to develop new applications; and practical knowledge emerging from field experience, which will enable them to create dialogues that work.

Course content

• Principles of interaction and context in designing dialogues.
• Fundamentals of the dialogue design process, including the application of dialogue theory to specific domains.
• Dialogue management techniques.
• Design and acceptance testing.
• Real-world experience with dialogue systems.

Key points will be illustrated through the building of a prototype dialogue system; this way participants will gain concrete experience, getting expert feedback in the process.

Lecturers

• Harald Aust, Philips Research (Germany)
• Norman Fraser, Vocalis (UK)
• David G. Novick, EURISCO (France)

Who should attend?

The course is intended for potential users of state-of-the-art technology in Spoken Dialogue Systems. These include technology providers as well as companies who want to make their services more efficient or cost-effective (e.g. call centres). The course is geared particularly towards personnel at (sub) management level for whom it is useful to get acquainted with the possibilities (and limitations) of spoken dialogue technologies.

Course Format

This is an international three-day course, consisting of seven 3-hour sessions, starting at lunch time on day one. The course language will be English. Participation will be limited to 25 people.

Course site

The course will be held at the conference centre Oud London near Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Fee

The fee for the course, which includes accommodation, breakfast, lunch and dinner, and documentation is HFL 2950,- (1375 ECU). ELSNET members are offered a 10% reduction. The topic for this course was selected on the basis of a questionnaire distributed to ELSNET members earlier this year. Those who replied to this questionnaire will get a 15% reduction.

Registration deadline

March 3, 1997

For more information

WEB: http://www.elsnet.org/training/bulletDialog.html or the ELSNET Coordintaion.

European Network in Language and Speech

email: elsnet@let.ruu.nl

mail :
Utrecht Institute of Linguistics
OTS,
Trans 10,
3512 JK Utrecht,
The Netherlands
tel : +31 30 253 6039
fax : +31 30 253 6000
www : http://www.elsnet.org