William S. Meisel Bio
Backed by over 30 years of experience in Artificial Intelligence, including advanced speech and natural language interpretation technology and resulting products and markets, Dr. Meisel has been an independent consultant and author since 1991. He wrote the first technical book on machine learning (computer pattern recognition) early in his career while a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at USC. Meisel then led the computer science division of a defense company for a decade and founded and led a speech recognition company, Speech Systems Incorporated, again for a decade.
Meisel has authored the recently published A Lost History of “Talking to Computers” and an earlier book, Evolution Continues: A Human-Computer Partnership.
Meisel’s background includes a solid technical foundation. He has a BS from Caltech and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and over 60 publications including a PhD dissertation and papers on neural networks, the first book on machine learning (Computer-Oriented Approaches to Pattern Recognition, Academic Press). His business experience includes managing the Computer Science Division of a defense company and founding and running a company developing speech recognition technology.
Experience
TMA Associates. Meisel was president and did consulting and conference organizing in speech recognition.
Speech Systems Incorporated, Tarzana, CA, 1981-1991: Dr. Meisel founded SSI in 1981 to develop a continuous speech recognition system. He was Chairman of the Board and President for most of this period. SSI developed and sold speech recognition systems for general applications and developed a Radiology Reporting System as a turnkey product. The company was the first to develop a large-vocabulary continuous speech recognition system based on phonetic modeling, trademarked the Phonetic Engine. The company lasted 20 years.
Technology Service Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, 1970 – 1981: Manager, Computer Sciences Division. TSC was a defense firm. Dr. Meisel helped the company grow from five people to over 200; the company was eventually sold to Westinghouse.
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 1967 – 1970: Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Dr. Meisel helped set up the Computer Science Department.
Education
1967 Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, with honors.
1966 M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, with honors.
1964 B.S., Engineering, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), with honors.