Kuansan Wang

Color Photo

Principal Researcher, Internet Service Research Center (ISRC), Microsoft Research

E-mail:Kuansan dot Wang at microsoft dot com
Mail: One Microsoft Way, Redmond WA 98052-6399, USA

Microsoft Career

Researcher/Senior Researcher:

I came to Microsoft Research in March 1998, first as a Researcher in the speech technology group working on the areas of spoken language understanding (SLU) and multimodal dialog systems. I contributed to the project MiPad and created the Speech Application Language Tags, or SALT that was later submitted to the world wide web consortium (W3C) and now part of the international standards ISO/IEC 18051/ECMA-269/ETSI TS 102 173, ISO/IEC 18056/ECMA-323/ETSI TS 101 990, and ECMA-348. An object model version, described in this TR I wrote, has entered its final phase of being standardized. I also contributed to W3C Speech Recognition Grammar Specification (SRGS), W3C Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML), and various other publications from W3C Multimodal Interaction Working Group. Many of my research papers can still be found at the speech group's publication list and video demo area.

Software Architect:

In January 2004, I moved to the speech product group and became a software architect. There I helped create and ship the product Microsoft Speech Server, which is still powering the corporate call center for Microsoft. Calling into Microsoft's main number +1(425)882-8080, you will be greeted by my automated operator, MS Connect. In this capacity, I also managed the revision of the speech system used in the Microsoft Voice Command, an add-on to Windows Mobile smart phone that enables the user to control the device by voice.

I was a founding member of an incubation group inside Microsoft that ships Microsoft Response Point, a speech-enabled small business phone system that uses voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies. Because the incubation group was structured to run like a start-up inside Microsoft, I had the opportunity to be the acting development manager and later the testing manager to build the engineering team from ground up, and participated in the product management/marketing and business development activities. It was quite a fun ride. In addition to the speech capabilities, I was also responsible to ensure the product is easy to setup and easy to use, including the invention of the magic "Response Point button" that earns Microsoft revenue on every phone sold without even having Microsoft software on it! I am especially glad that these and other innovations of the product have received great reviews and customer feedback.

Principal Researcher:

Since September 2007, I have been back in Microsoft Research, joining the newly founded Internet Service Research Center. Initially, I will be working on Web search, an area I have found that many speech technologies apply.

Before Microsoft

Before joining Microsoft, I worked at Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ, from 1994 to 1996, and what used to call NYNEX (now part of Verizon) Science and Technology Center in White Plains, NY. I received M.S. and Ph.D from University of Maryland, College Park, MD in 1989 and 1994, and B.S. from National Taiwan University in 1986, all in Electrical Engineering.

Last Updated: 01/24/2008