The CSIR’s Voice Computing Research Group studies the way in which speech- and language-related technologies can be created and applied to benefit the people of South Africa. South Africa is a multilingual country with 11 official languages, requiring unique technology solutions like iSinkwe to accommodate the diversity of languages.
Dr Karen Calteaux brings experience in leadership, business development and finance management to the iSinkwe team. Her background in the sociolinguistics of South Africa’s local languages is often applied to aid in user experience design. She currently leads the research group that developed iSinkwe.
Dr Georg Schlünz is the iSinkwe product leader. He drives the iSinkwe team towards the vision of opening up the world of reading and learning to everyone. His responsibilities include external activities such as market analysis, customer engagement and business model development, as well as internal activities such as team coordination and technical development.
Ilana Wilken is a human computer interaction specialist in the iSinkwe team. She investigates the physical, emotional, intellectual and social factors that influence how people adopt and use speech-related technology. She uses this knowledge to design the user interface and user experience of the iSinkwe product and to test the technical outputs.
Willem van der Walt is a software developer in the iSinkwe team. He contributes to the development of text-to-speech systems and is mainly responsible for integrating these systems into the real-world applications that use them. He is a specialist regarding the accessibility of software for the disabled community.
Funders
ISinkwe was funded by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and the Department of Science and Innovation.
Contact us
If you would like to get in touch, please send an email to info@isinkwe.com. You can also visit our social media pages to see iSinkwe in action.