Speech processing as a career

[PeteSchult]

My academic background is in math and linguistics, but lately I've gotten interested in speech processing. What I'm wondering is whether I need to go back and get a BSEE (and possibly an MSEE or PhD in EE) or if I can realistically hope to get into the field by just taking a few courses in signal processing and speech processing. I should add that (1) I'm willing to go back to school for whatever background I need, I'd just like to get up and running as quickly as possible and (2) my first love is math, so though manipulating hardware is enjoyable, I'm more interested in mathematical modeling of problems.

--Pete Schult

[NoTime]

All the speech systems I have experience with are pretty horrid.
Make a few rude noises and they will decide you said something.

All the necessary hardware exists, and cheap
Math and software programing should cover the skill set.
Throw in a whole bunch of research and you might get somewhere.

Linguistics will help on the backend (after you get it to do words).