Institute for Language and Speech Processing

The Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) (Greek: Ινστιτούτο Επεξεργασίας του Λόγου, ΙΕΛ) is an Athens based, Greek non-profit private foundation focusing on applied research in Speech Processing, Natural Language Processing and Computer-Assisted Language Learning. The goal of ILSP is to support the growth of Language Technology in Greece. For this purpose it has brought together a team of experts and has created the necessary technical infrastructure in accordance with the European Community policy towards safeguarding the European cultural heritage through technology. ILSP aims to be a pole of attraction for the language industry, which is growing both in Greece and in the rest of Europe, thus contributing to the expansion of activities in this particularly important area of modern IT. The industrial direction which it maintains, the experience of its researchers and the close relations which it keeps with key research centres in other European countries, are the three basic elements in the profile of ILSP.

ILSP carries out applied research in Man-Machine Interfaces, Machine Learning, Speech Processing, Text Processing, Theoretical and Computational Linguistics and Language Learning Technologies. Expertise used by the Institute includes basic fields as Natural Language Processing, Digital Signal Processing and Pattern Recognition. Its mission is mainly to support basic research, promoting on the other hand the development of new products in the form of laboratory prototypes.

The research taking place both for Natural Language Processing and Speech Processing gives these areas new impetus, which stems from their complementarity. Taking as a fact that the Institute combines in its activities the research in these two thematic areas, it has the ability to successfully deal with those issues that require know-how from both domains.

The Institute pushes the technologies developed in the framework of projects until the phase of industrial prototypes and products, using the full cycle of industrial development including quality control.