Radboud University receives NGF AiNed Fellowship Grant

NWO’s NGF AiNed Fellowship Grant has been awarded to ‘Responsible AI for Voice Diagnostics’, a project led by Cristian Tejedor Garcia of Radboud University’s Center for Language Studies. The project’s goal is to develop new forms of speech technology that provide AI-assisted diagnosis and management of neuro-degenerative disease and AI-assisted support for improvement of pronunciation and reading skills.

Already, artificial intelligence (AI) has a remarkable ability to analyze the human voice. Tejedor Garcia’s project aims to develop AI in a responsible, privacy-protecting manner, so that it can be used to make possible diagnosis systems that support doctors and teachers. The project aims not only to collaborate with organisations and businesses in the health sector, but also to support the development of educational materials related to AI in the area of language and communication. The researchers involved will also contribute to a number of health-related ICAI Labs.

“Our voices convey more about us than we realise,” says Tejedor Garcia. “This project develops AI that zeros in on specific information in our voices for the purpose of healthcare or education, while erasing non-relevant, privacy-sensitive information. We aim to improve the diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease and assessment of pronunciation and reading skills.”

Radboud AI
Tejedor Garcia is a computer scientist specializing in speech recognition technology at the Center for Language Studies, part of Radboud University’s Faculty of Arts. The project is also part of Radboud AI, the university’s interdisciplinary network of artificial intelligence research.

The AiNed Fellowship is part of the AiNed Programme, created by stakeholders, partners and participants drawn from the AI network and ecosystem of the Netherlands AI Coalition. The goal of the program is to secure and maintain an internationally competitive position for the Netherlands in the area of AI. The National Growth Fund has allocated a large budget to the program.