Engineer Design
Resume:
Simonie Wilson
Liberty, MO *****
*******@**.**.***
Qualification Summary:
Dialog Design & Tuning, Computational Linguistics, User Interfaces, Usability, Rapid Prototyping, Scripting, Web Development
17+ years user interfaces
17+ years web development (personal and professional)
13+ years computational linguistics
13+ years dialog design, development and tuning
9+ years rapid prototyping
9+ years database access
8+ years usability
8+ years general development experience (C, Perl, Jscript, VoiceXML)
7+ years management and leadership at various levels
7+ years information retrieval experience
Experience Summary:
Seventeen years of increasingly responsible dialog design, tuning and usability, computer scripting and programming, information systems engineering, system integration and management experience in fast-paced corporate, academic, international and government settings, in addition to contracting and self-directed work-from-home situations. Programming expertise includes C, Perl, HTML and XWindows/Motif, VoiceXML and JScript with some experience in Pascal, Tcl and Lisp. System engineering background includes rapid prototyping, software quality assurance and user interface and usability expertise in multi-vendor hardware and software environments, with knowledge of Sybase and Oracle databases. Extensive experience with Internet connectivity and public domain software for PC, Mac and UNIX platforms. Task, line and subcontract management experience.
Education:
Georgetown University
Master of Science: Computational Linguistics
Stephens College
Bachelor of Arts: Mathematics and Computer Science
Employment:
May 2010-Present Independent Consulting
VUI Designer and Tuner
Provide Voice User Interface design services on consulting projects as they arise. Rewrite client-designed DTMF and VUI flows and prompts. Create and review Visio call flows and dialog design specifications, transcribe calls and write tuning reports for customers and engineers on deployed systems. Convert GSL grammars to GRXML. Field customer questions.
Jan 2008 – May 2010 CONVERGYS (formerly Intervoice)
Speech Scientis - Tuning
Responsible for application tuning from a grammar and VUI perspective, as well as problem analysis. Duties include transcription, data collection, and report preparation, analyzing application statistics, tuning statistics, call flow and grammars to provide recommendations for application improvements. Also responsible for designing, developing, implementing and tuning speech grammars for Grammar XML (GRXML), SLM and VXML formats. Conduct speech recognition application related studies, including confidence rejection threshold testing, alternate phonetic pronunciation, language model weighting variance testing, speech engine parameter setting, and speech grammar optimization. Provide consultative advice to customers and company staff on advanced speech recognition functions/capabilities. Participate in on-site customer discovery sessions.
2007-2008 Open Methods
VUI Practice Manager
Create VUI Best Practices and Requirements for Open Methods. Evaluate and test current dialog design tool release and direct future releases. Design and tune IVR flows for DTMF, Voice Only and Hybrid projects. Write requirements for productizing internal tuning tool. Create and maintain internal wiki page on all of the above.
2003-2007 Independent Consulting
VUI Designer and Tuner
Provide Voice User Interface design services on consulting projects as they arise. Rewrite client-designed DTMF and VUI flows and prompts. Create and review Visio call flows and dialog design specifications, transcribe calls and write tuning reports for customers and engineers on deployed systems. Continuing my previous Search Companion duties for Microsoft. Sole hands-on editorial and tuning for shipped character-based intelligent information retrieval Search Companion tool in XP, updating and improving product for current end-users of the web-based search tool. Duties include web editing, online tool improvement, scripting and web research. Analyze user logs to extract information in order to guide the knowledge engineering efforts. Build lists and dictionaries from the variety of resources. Design and implement automation. Analyze user data to determine demand for topics, as well as word and phrase usage. Monitor performance of existing NLP-based features on the site. Field customer questions.
1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation
Software Development Engineer,
Speech.NET, Mobility, Voice.NET and Search Companion Group
Developing and tuning interactive speech-only VUI and multimodal dialogs for access to personal consumer and business information, such as Email, Calendar, Contacts, Web data and LOB, as well as presence information. Creating rapid prototypes in Jscript and VoiceXML with access to web and MS Exchange resources, seen by the highest management and dogfooded throughout Microsoft. In addition, designing standards to be used by dialog designers throughout MS and the industry as a whole. Considered User Perspective expert on teams and work closely on planning and executing Usability studies on our products. On team that shipped PC2Phone feature in MSN Messenger deployed with XP. Co-authored Dialog Design job description and ladder levels for new positions at MS. Co-supervision of Intern. Hands-on editorial director for shipped Search Companion tool in XP, updating and improving product for current end-users of the web-based search tool. Subcontract management, including legal, budget and supervision.
1999 Entropic
Project Engineer, Advanced Solutions Group
Building and tuning customized interactive dialogue systems for corporate clients, incorporating them into existing websites and accessing personalized web information. Overall system design, dialogue specification, grammar design, prompt specification, system refinement and testing using in-house development tools and tcl coding. (Entropic was purchased by Microsoft Corporation).
1993-1999 Raytheon Systems Company, formerly Hughes Aircraft Company
Member of Technical Staff
Responsible for all aspects of software design and programming in the development of large-scale, database-intensive information systems and HCI. Perform rapid prototyping and integrate data management systems into high-speed communication network infrastructures. Work with the latest Web and speech and language technology in developing user-friendly interfaces to database information. Clearance.
Spoken Language Technology for Drivers for Hughes Research Lab and GM- Integrating current Natural Language, Speech Recognition, Generation, Synthesis and Navigation database technology to create an in-car system for GM drivers with a natural interface to navigation data, in-car system controls, and general information like traffic and the internet.
Speech Technology Intranet and Testbed - Work with state of the art speech technology to create marketable demo scenarios within the company, utilizing software developed commercially as well as from within, and using rapid prototyping to propose new applications. Develop speech technology intranet site for the company to increase company knowledge, interest and communication in the field.
OSDS Software Performance Management, Hughes Information Technology Systems Internet/Intranet Webmaster, Tactical User Desktop, MetaWizardTM Productization and Prototyping project for Japanese Government, NASA Earth Observing System Data Information System (EOSDIS) program.
Training, Skills and Participation: Topic at SpeechTEK 2009, Usability and Tuning: A Marriage Made in VUI Heaven .Podcast for Convergys on Tuning January, 2009.Presented The VUI Backlash at SpeechTEK East 2008.Presented Weapons Against the VUI Backlash at eComm 2008.Author of GetAutomated.com and the VUI Blog at Open Methods.Presented Use Cases for VoiceXML Forum Advanced Dialogs Invited Workshop at SpeechTEK East 2007.Numerous Microsoft training courses In Program Management and Usability.Patent in Dialog Design and Messaging granted 2002.Circle of Excellence nomination for Software Development at Microsoft, 2001.Masters paper research implemented in tools used by Entropic and Microsoft.Consulting Linguist for LinguistList.org, 1999-2004.Company Fellow in the Master of Science program in Computational Linguistics at Georgetown, 1996-1999.Presented paper on "Exploring Methodologies for Investigating 'Sweet Carbonated Beverage' Isoglosses in the United States" at the RMMLA/American Dialect Society annual meeting, October 1997, Denver, CO.Elected Chair for 1998 RMMLA/ADS presentation session.Presented paper with Carrie Crockett entitled "Case Study: An analysis of Phonetically Significant Phenomena in the Speech of a Non-Standard Southern English Speaker" as part of the poster session at the Cornell University Student Linguistic Conference in July 1997 and the RMMLA/ADS conjoint meeting 1998 in Salt Lake City, UT. Volunteer for ANLP Conference, April 1997, Washington, D.C. Volunteer for Take Our Daughters To Work Day, multiple years, including organizing the first ever event of its kind for Open Methods in 2007.Volunteer for Expanding Your Horizons, multiple years.
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