Rate My Professor Nigel Ward

Nigel Ward is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), a position he has held since 2002. He previously served as Associate Professor in the Department of Mechano-Informatics at the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, from 1994 to 2002, and as Lecturer there from 1992 to 1994. Ward earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1991, for work on improving the quality of Japanese-English machine translation. He holds a B.S. in Computer and Communication Sciences (with Honors) and Mathematics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1983. Additional appointments include Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor at Kyoto University's Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies in 2015-2016, and Visiting Researcher at the University of Tokyo Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology in 1991-1992.

Ward's primary research area is spoken language processing, focusing on prosody and real-time responsiveness in spoken dialog systems. At UTEP, he directs the Interactive Systems Group, developing empirical models from human communication practices to enhance dialog systems, speech-to-speech translation, language assessment, and human-computer interaction. He chaired the Speech Prosody Special Interest Group from 2018 to 2024 and is an organizer of the Interspeech 2026 Challenge on Transfer of Pragmatic Intent in Speech-to-Speech Translation. Ward authored Prosodic Patterns in English Conversation (Cambridge University Press, 2019) and A Connectionist Language Generator (Ablex, 1994). Key publications include "Prosodic features which cue back-channel responses in English and Japanese" (2000), "Non-lexical conversational sounds in American English" (2006), and "Spoken Language Interaction with Robots: Recommendations for Future Research" (2022). His awards encompass the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Workshop on Spoken Language Technology (2022), Best Paper Award at PACLING (2001), Fulbright Scholar (2015-2016), Kokuhi Fellowship (Japanese Government, 1988-1989), and National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship (1983-1986).