On June 18th, a group of Second Year students from local secondary schools visited the School of Computing as part of DCU's Junior Summer Science Camp. The students took part in a workshop on automatic speech recognition and other aspects speech technology, which demonstrated just one of the many applications of computing. They blended their own creativity with a dialogue-building toolkit to produce simple interactive programmes that mimicked TV quizzes and virtual dating.

The three-hour-long lab session aimed to introduce students to computing and speech technology, and to improve understanding of their wide applicability. The workshop focused on teaching students how to build simple dialogue systems that allow a user to interact with the computer using speech. The students also learnt how to describe spoken words in terms of component sounds, in a similar way to using letters to spell written words. This knowledge was then used to instruct the computer how to produce synthetic speech. The session proved to be a very enjoyable learning experience for the students, many of whom commented that this introduction to speech technology would encourage them to learn more about computers.

The participating students came from local feeder schools that form part of DCU's North Dublin Access Programme. This aims to increase participation in higher education by local students who, for a variety of financial or social reasons, do not typically view going to university as a viable or attractive option.

The students were visiting the School of Computing as part of DCU's pilot Junior Summer Science Camp, a weeklong camp that exposes students to a variety of science-related topics, including biotechnology, physics, and electronic engineering. It is hoped that the Camp can be expanded next year to accommodate a much larger group of students.