Foundation concepts
For the remaining modules, you may need to learn (or revise) some foundational concepts in mathematics and probability. There were some pointers to these at the start of the course. Don’t worry if you skipped over them back then, but you will now need them to fully understand Automatic Speech Recognition
The Start tab in each module specifies the concepts that you will need to understand, that are not covered in the videos. Aim for a basic understanding of the concepts listed in each module before watching that module’s videos, then bring your questions to the lecture and/or ask on the forums.
You can get a head start now if you wish:
- Sharon Goldwater’s Mathematics tutorials on “Vectors and their uses” and “Basic probability theory”
- foundation material on mathematics here on speech.zone
- more extensive preparatory material on mathematics provided to MSc Speech & Language Processing students
Lab schedule for the rest of the course
- Week 9 Wednesday: lab to start Assignment 2
- Week 10 Wednesday: lab to continue Assignment 2
- Week 11 Wednesday: lab to continue Assignment 2
- Revision week Wednesday: lab for last opportunity to get help with Assignment 2
Notes on the videos for Modules 7 to 10
The Speech Processing course operates a policy of continual improvement: we try to make the materials and our teaching better every year. It’s not feasible to completely revise the materials every year, so inevitably this policy means that some parts of the course have undergone more recent improvement than other parts.
In previous modules, Simon’s videos were organised as one video per topic, with each video showing you a fragment of the Big Picture to explain how each topic is related to others. These are the most recently improved course materials; eventually, the whole course will have this type of video.
For modules 7 to 10, the videos are a little older. There is essentially a single video per module, divided into several shorter videos for easier viewing. Because these videos were made at a time when the course was taught entirely online, you may encounter a few references that don’t make sense (e.g., to video material that we are no longer using, or to a previous online tutorial/class/lecture). The Videos tab in each module will identify any such references, and tell you how the current version of course will cover that material (e.g., by providing some foundational material, or in a live lecture).