News
Here’s what the speech group is up to …
Hiraia Haami-Wells, Blues Award Recipient
October 3 2025
Hiraia was awarded the Most Meritorious Innovation (Business and Innovation) Award for founding and managing Kurutao, a flagship Māori innovation programme at the University of Auckland.
Learn more about Kurutao here: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2024/03/11/new-university-study-tour-maori.html
MPAi Launch
September 19 2025
MPAi was officially launched alongside Kuputaka, a Māori, glossary of terms and style guide for the University of Auckland.
Learn more about MPAi here: https://www.mpai.auckland.ac.nz/
Learn about Kuputaka here: Kuputaka
Himashi Rathnayake @ 3MT Competition
August 8 2025
Himashi was a finalist at the Three-minute Thesis competition and featured in the Uni News for her work in developing the first speech emotion recognition system for te reo Māori. Watch the 3MT presentation here.
Read the article on her research here: Himashi on Uni News
Smart Ideas Grant: AI-based coaching platform for Te Reo Māori pronunciation
June 26 2025
Dr Jesin James, Professor Catherine Watson alongside Dr Piatia Allen received a Smart Ideas Grant to develop a tool that provides real-time personalised pronuncation feedback to Māori learners.
Read the full article here: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2025/09/16/AI-in-te-reo-learning-a-boost.html
Isabella Shields on One News
September 23 2024
Isabella shared her work and insights on Māori pronunciation and the complexities of the Māori ‘R’ sound.
Read the full article here: https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/09/23/this-research-could-help-google-maps-say-the-maori-r-right/
ASSTA 2023 Newsletter
September 1 2023
ASSTA Newsletter for 2023 that features the Speech Research @ UoA research group is out. Jesin James was the newsletter’s editor.
ASSTA 2021 Newsletter
December 1 2022
ASSTA Newsletter for 2021 that features the Speech Research @ UoA research group is out. Jesin James was the newsletter’s editor.
Jesin James on bFM
July 6 2021
Jesin James was interviewed by bFM about the different speech technology related research activities Jesin is involved in.
Listen to the full interview here: https://95bfm.com/bcast/ready-steady-learn-w-jesin-james-july-6-2021
Dr. Peter J Keegan on te ao Māori news
July 5 2021
Dr. Peter J Keegan was interviewed by Te ao Māori news about the differen research initiatives the speech group has been doing in te reo Māori.
Watch the full interview here: https://www.teaomaori.news/getting-rid-cartire-pronunciation-when-siri-and-google-mean-kaitaia
Māori Speech Hui and Technology Workshop in media
June 25 2021
Media release talking about Māori Speech Hui and Workshop: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2021/06/25/maori-speech-hui-aims-to-enhance-te-reo-through-speech-technolog.html
Speech Research @ UoA in Māori TV
July 1 2021
The Māori Speech Hui organised by the Speech Research group and various members of the group were featured on Māori TV: https://www.teaomaori.news/developing-maori-siri
Peter J Keegan is ready to be a synthetic voice
April 18 2021
Peter has kindly recorded 831 sentences in New Zealand English. Our student Pallavi Nibhadhe is busy developing a synthetic voice with these recordings.