Lecturer from the British University in Dubai (BUiD) presents research findings at Global Conference

During the conference which took place last month, Dr. Talhami presented a paper about the indexing of Arabic speech databases. His research - which has taken three years to develop, introduces new methods for accessing Arabic audio files and data bases. These findings have developed new systems which allow Arabic users to access and catalogue speech automatically rather sorting through files and databases manually. With the explosion of data and information now available to us through the internet and databases, this research has found a valuable way of managing and organising information in Arabic systems more effectively.

This is the first time that advanced speech recognition technology has been applied to cataloguing large speech databases. Dr. Talhami and his fellow researchers recognised that there was a lack of investment and research into Arabic systems and wanted to bring these systems closer to English language systems.

Dr. Talhami said, 'I was very pleased to represent BUiD at such an important global IT event. Presenting the findings of our research gave me a real sense of pride, and demonstrated the significance of the research taking place here in the UAE and the Middle East.' He continued, 'I look forward to continuing with this research at BUiD so that we can build on our current findings and develop further research.'

Dr Talhami brings a wealth of research experience in the areas of speech recognition, speech synthesis and voice portals to BUiD. Prior to his position at the university, Dr. Talhami was on the faculty of Zayed University's College of Information Systems where he initiated major research projects involving speech recognition. A member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering since 1985 and the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia since 1998, he is also a recipient of the Arab British Chamber of Commerce Award Natwest / BP Award for Technology for his innovative design work. Talhami received his Ph.D in Digital Signal Processing from Imperial College at the University of London.