What our graduates have to say
Simon Hammond
Graduated: MSc Speech & Language Processing (2010)
Occupation: Works for Appen Butler Hill, a company who provide corpora and training materials for speech and language technology
"An absolutely fascinating course - a good mix of linguistics and computer science."
Course Reflections
The MSc in Speech and Language Processing was an absolutely fascinating course - a good mix of linguistics and computer science, almost all of it aimed at direct practical applications, in contrast with some more theoretical research fields. Several of the courses were quite difficult for a linguist with no computational background, but the course provided good support for these gaps.
Career Path
The MSc gave me useful background to move from my position as a transcription supervisor to a more technical role working with language models and programming scripts for commercial use.
It provided me with valuable insights into how the data produced by my company are used, and gave me a solid grounding to take into industry.
Laura Jehl
Graduated: MSc Speech & Language Processing (2010)
Occupation: researcher at the department of computational linguistics at Heidelberg University
"I was really amazed at how much I had learned in just one year."
Course Reflections
The course was a roller-coaster ride through the current technologies and issues in speech and language processing, never really slowing down. There was a focus on applications but the theoretical background was also not neglected. Assignments provided helpful hands-on experience. I was really amazed at how much I had learned in just one year.
The MSc opened up a new career path for me and has introduced me to an influential community of researchers, which has been very helpful in getting a PhD position.
Career Path
Right after graduating from Edinburgh University I spent seven months working as an intern and later as a full-time employee for VICO Research & Consulting GmbH, a German agency offering market research as well as consulting with respect to social media/web 2.0.
As a computational linguist, my main task was to adapt and improve automatic text mining software. I was also involved in project management and customer relations.
In April 2011 I started work as a researcher at the department of computational linguistics at Heidelberg University, Germany. I will be working on a PhD dissertation in the field of machine translation and search technologies.
Evia Kainada
Graduated: MSc Speech & Language Processing (2005)
Occupation: Post-doctoral researcher at the University of Ioannina, Greece and Teaching Fellow at the Technological Educational Institute of Patras, Greece.
"It is a degree that offers a feeling of great satisfaction and of personal achievement!"
Course Reflections
The advantages of this course can hardly be described in a few words: it is interdisciplinary at its core (it belongs in two departments - Linguistics and Informatics), it is staffed by some of the best researchers/lecturers in the field who teach state-of-the-art modules, and it offers tremendous support to the students (academic and personal).
The MSc is demanding thereby ensuring high-level performance, and importantly it is an extremely exciting course. Every module is interesting and new and there is not a single assignment that doesn't require new ways of thinking and working.
It has been great fun being part of the MSc in SLP! My classmates and I bonded very much and we are still (6 years down the road) in regular contact. Moreover, we are still in regular contact with the lecturers of the course; my experience showed me that the commitment of the lecturers to support the students of the MSc in SLP extends beyond the 12 months of attendance of the degree, since they are always there for help and guidance. It is a degree that offers a feeling of great satisfaction and of personal achievement!
Career Path
Immediately after finishing my MSc I enrolled for a PhD in Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. After finishing my PhD I worked for a year as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Leeds, after which I moved to Greece where I currently work as a Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Ioannina, and as a Teaching Fellow at the Technological Educational Institute of Patras.
The MSc allowed me the opportunity to continue my career in ways I couldn't have if I hadn't attended it. First of all, after attending the MSc I was granted an ESRC scholarship, without which I wouldn't have been able to follow a PhD.
Secondly, the programming, research methods and statistical skills I gained during that year allowed me to pursue my career in Laboratory Phonology, meaning I could combine my theoretical background on Linguistics with the computational side of speech processing.
Importantly, however, it allowed me to exist in two research fields at the same time, i.e. theoretical and experimental linguistics.
Gabriel Murray
Graduated: MSc Speech & Language Processing (2004)
Occupation: Post-doc at the University of British Columbia
"It was an exhilarating experience and I probably learned more that year than any other year of my academic life."
Course Reflections
The MSc program was certainly an intense year; the program coordinator was telling the truth when he predicted at the beginning of the year that it would be like "taking a brief drink from a fire hose." It was an exhilarating experience and I probably learned more that year than any other year of my academic life.
The SLP course was fantastic preparation for my PhD and my post-doc work. The instructors did a great job of making the material accessible to students from a wide variety of backgrounds. My MSc research project segued smoothly into my PhD research and I felt I really hit the ground running.
Due to the intensity of the MSc program, the cohort of students became very close that year. Most of us are still in touch and I know that others have gone on to very successful careers.
Career Path
I completed the MSc Speech and Language Processing program in 2004. I then continued on at Edinburgh for my PhD in the School of Informatics. After finishing my PhD in 2007, I started a post-doc position at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where I am still working today.
Tim Mills
Graduated: MSc Speech & Language Processing (2003)
Occupation: Research Associate at Northeastern University
"An essential foundation, both for my CV and for the on-the-ground skills I use every day"
Course Reflections
The course was intense, but lots of fun. There was a good group spirit among the MSc students - we encouraged each other through the tough bits.
Career Path
Now I'm working on a post-doc bridging linguistics, speech synthesis, and speech therapy. Much of what I've done since, including my current job, relies directly on what I learned in the MSc. It was an essential foundation, both for my CV and for the on-the-ground skills I use every day.
Annika Hämäläinen
Graduated: MSc Speech & Language Processing (2002)
Occupation: Consultant at Loquendo, a leading speech technology company
"…fun and hands-on, with lots of coursework and practicals…"
Course Reflections
The MSc was hard work but packed us with the essentials of a wide variety of related topics. The courses were fun and hands-on, with lots of coursework and practicals to learn the necessary practical skills, as well.
Career Path
After the MSc, I went on to do a PhD, for which the MSc and the five-month research project were excellent preparation. During and after my PhD, I worked for some of the market leaders in the field of speech technology, Nuance and Loquendo, in consultancy roles that built directly on the knowledge and skills that I gained at Edinburgh. I am now doing a postdoc at the Microsoft Language Development Centre.
Annika Hämäläinen LinkedIn page
Christophe Van Bael
Graduated: MSc Speech & Language Processing (2002)
Occupation: Business Consultant
"The course was challenging at times, but it was inspiring and rewarding throughout"
Course Reflections
I experienced the course like a boot camp for the brain. It was hard for sure, but never before and never after have I learned so many things in such a short period of time. It was an inspiring experience throughout.
Above all, my year in Edinburgh has sharpened my analytical skills, my perseverance and my belief that anything can be achieved with hard work. It has helped me greatly with my PhD, and I still benefit from it in my consulting work today.
Career Path
I started a PhD in speech tech at the Radboud University Nijmegen. Along the road, I got a teaching degree and I organized tutorials and classes on speech technology and computational linguistics.
Currently, I'm a business consultant. I help companies improve their customer service & customer loyalty by giving advice in the areas of customer experience management, social CRM, inbound marketing and contact centre optimization (with & without speech tech).