Steve Young (software engineer) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Steve Young CBE FRS FREng
Born	Stephen John Young 1951 (age 73–74) Liverpool, United Kingdom
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Known for	HTK toolkit Spoken dialogue system
Scientific career
Fields	Conversational AI Automatic Speech Recognition Spoken Dialogue System
Institutions	University of Cambridge
Thesis	Speech synthesis from concept with applications to speech output from systems (1978)
Doctoral advisor	Frank Fallside

Stephen John Young, born in 1951, is a British scientist and professor. He teaches at the University of Cambridge. He is also an entrepreneur, meaning he starts and runs businesses.

He is known for his work in automatic speech recognition. This is the technology that lets computers understand what people say. He also helped create spoken dialogue systems. These are computer programs that can have conversations with people.

From 2009 to 2015, he was a senior leader at Cambridge University. He helped manage the university's plans and money. Later, from 2015 to 2019, he worked with Apple. He was part of the team that developed Siri. Siri is the voice assistant on Apple devices.

Early Life and Education

Stephen Young was born in Liverpool, England, in 1951. He went to the University of Cambridge. In 1973, he earned a degree in Electrical Sciences. In 1978, he completed his PhD. His advanced degree focused on speech recognition. His professor, Frank Fallside, guided his studies.

Before becoming a full professor, he taught at both Manchester and Cambridge universities. In 1994, he became a Professor of Information Engineering at Cambridge.

Research and Academic Career

Professor Young is famous for creating the HTK toolkit. This is a special software program. It helps computers understand patterns over time, especially in speech. He first developed it in 1989 at Cambridge University.

The HTK toolkit became very popular around the world. A company called Entropic helped share it. Stephen Young was one of the people who started Entropic in 1993. Later, Microsoft bought Entropic. Microsoft then made the HTK software available again to Cambridge University. The guide for using HTK, called the HTK book, has been used by many researchers.

In the late 1990s, Professor Young started focusing on a new area. He worked on designing spoken dialogue systems. These systems are like smart computer programs that can talk to you. His most important work in this area is a system that helps computers manage conversations. It helps them understand what you mean, even if your speech is not perfect.

His research helps make these talking computer systems better. They can work well even with noisy speech. They can also learn and improve as they talk to more people. His team has used new computer learning methods, called deep learning, to make these systems even smarter. They have won awards for their work.

Entrepreneurship

Besides his work as a professor and scientist, Stephen Young is also a successful entrepreneur. He helped start three companies that were later bought by bigger companies:

• Entropic: This company made software for speech recognition. It helped people use their voices to control things on the internet through mobile phones. Microsoft bought Entropic in 1999.
• Phonetic Arts: This company created technology for making computers speak in a natural and expressive way. Their technology helped computer games have characters that could say different things with various voices. Google bought Phonetic Arts in 2010.
• VocalIQ: This company built a special system for voice interfaces. It helped businesses add voice control to their apps and devices. Apple bought VocalIQ in 2015.

Awards and Honours

Professor Young has received many important awards and honours for his work. He is a member of several important groups, including:

• The Royal Academy of Engineering
• The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• The RSA
• The International Speech Communication Association (ISCA)

He received the IEEE Signal Processing Society Technical Achievement Award in 2004. In 2010, he received the ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement. He also won the European Signal Processing Society Individual Technical Achievement Award in 2013. In 2015, he received the IEEE James L Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing Award. In 2021, he was given the IEEE Carl Friedrich Gauss Education Award.

In 2020, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is a very high honour for scientists in the UK.

In 2022, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). This award was given for his important contributions to software engineering.