Sandra Elaine Hutchins (born 1946) is an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

and communications engineer. Her area of expertise is

speech recognition Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers. It is also ...

, that is, programming computers to process

human voice The human voice consists of sound Voice production, made by a human being using the vocal tract, including Speech, talking, singing, Laughter, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically ...

. Hutchins' main focus is writing programs that will allow computers to recognize and respond to spoken English, thereby removing the need for a keyboard.

Education

Hutchins received her

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

from the University of California, San Diego, in 1967. During her undergraduate studies, Hutchins majored in physics and minored in linguistics. In 1970, she received her Ph.D. in computer science, also from the University of California, San Diego.

Career

Hutchins' current research is interdisciplinary, straddling the fields of linguistics, physics, and computer science. She has worked both at universities and with corporations and holds at least two

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

. One patent is for computer speech recognition programs that work in loud environments, and one patent concerns digital compression of speech. She began working at

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

as an assistant professor and electrical engineer in 1970 and continued with this position through 1972. Hutchins then became the senior staff engineer in communications with TRW Defense and Space Systems, where she worked until 1977. During part of her time with TRW, Hutchins also served as an instructor at Loyola Marymount University, teaching from 1973 to 1974. After leaving TRW, she assumed the role of engineering manager for Linkabit Corporations, from 1977 to 1979. She then became the software development manager for ITT Defense Communications Division, from 1981 to 1982. In 1983, Hutchins became Chief Technical Officer for Natural Speech Technologies, a job she held until 2001. While at Natural Speech Technologies, she supervised the development of many educational games, programs, software, and puzzles. Several of these games were displayed at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

in 1985, as part of an exhibit on American games. In 1992, she was one of the winners of the

Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where he remained for mos ...

National Search for Computing Applications to Assist People with Disabilities. Hutchins worked as the manager of Bloomberg LP in New York, from 2001 to 2018.

Memberships

Hutchins is a member of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

. She is also a member of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

Education

Career

Memberships

References

See also