This workshop is and NSF-initiated planning workshop to determine research problems in the area of spoken language understanding that deserve future funding. The main goals of the workshop are: (a) it identifies the most important areas of research in speech and natural language understanding, with particular attention to those not currently addressed by NSF or other funding agencies; (b) to determine how NSF can benefit from other programs, such as the DARPA speech and natural language program, and yet distinguish itself from these programs; and (c) to produce a set of recommendations to NSF to help guide funding opportunities. The workshop participants represent a balance of researchers in the areas of speech recognition, natural language understanding and human computer interaction. Participants include researchers with NSF grants and researchers in government and industrial laboratories. The workshop will consist of plenary sessions and breakout groups focused on three research areas: robust systems; the interaction of speech and natural language; and human-computer interaction.
