Research 

Current grants / projects

• PI, MOE AcRF Tier 1 grant, 2024-2026, User-centric personalized voice protection 

• Co-PI, Workforce Development Applied Research Fund (WDARF), 2025-2027, Advance through productive failure with the ADVANCE (Adult Development and Virtual Autonomous Nurturing Collaborative Educator) AI agent 

• PI, MOE AcRF Tier 1 grant, 2023-2025, Automatic speech de-identification on Singapore English speech

• PI,  MOE Ignition grant, 2023-2025, Multimodal visual acuity testing with speech and touch panel 

• Co-PI, MOE Ignition grant, 2024-2025, Generative AI Aided Safety Investigation System

• Co-PI, NRF, AISG, 2023-2025, LEARN: Language automated Evaluation by generating Answers / questions from caRtooNs

Publications

A full list of publications can be found at: Google Scholar and Dblp

2025

• Bowen Zhang, Nur Afiqah Abdul Latiff, Justin Kan, Rong Tong, Donny Soh, Xiaoxiao Miao, Ian McLoughlin, "Automated evaluation of children's speech fluency for low-resource languages", Interspeech 2025

• Yaodi Liu, Kun Zhang, Dianying Chen, Chenxi Cai, Xiaohe Wu, Rong Tong, "A discontinuous NER model based on token prediction and contrastive learning to enhance span", The Journal of Super computing, Vol 81, no. 956, 2025

• Yaodi Liu, Kun Zhang, Rong Tong, Chenxi Cai, Dianying Chen, Xiaohe Wu, "A Two-Stage Boundary-Enhanced contrastive learning approach for nested named entity recognition ",  Expert Systems with Applications, 2025 

• Priyanshu Dhingra, Satyam Agrawal, Chandra Sekar Veerappan, Eng Siong Chng, Rong Tong, "Leveraging Large Language Models for Speech De-Identification ", 2025, International Journal of Asian Language Processing, doi: https://doi.org/10.1142/S2717554524500140 

• Yaodi Liu, Kun Zhang, Rong Tong, Chenxi Cai, Dianying Chen, Xiaohe Wu, "A Flat-Span Contrastive Learning Method for Nested Named Entity Recognition", 2025, International Journal of Asian Language Processing

• Farhan Azmi, Xing Long He, Han Xiang Kee, Ying Zhen Lee, Wen Qin Yeo, Rong Tong, "Chatphasia: A Personalized End-to-End System for Aphasia Therapy", International Workshop on Pattern Recognition (IWPR) 2025 

• Akshita Abrol , Ridwan Arefeen, Kelvin Zhenghao Li, Zhengkui Wang, Rong Tong, "Robust Speech Recognition for Visual Acuity Testing in Multi-Speaker Clinical Environments", International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP) 2025

• Farhan Azmi, Rong Tong, "LLM-Enhanced Spoken Named Entity Recognition leveraging ASR N-best Hypotheses", International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP) 2025

• Yaodi Liu, Kun Zhang, Rong Tong, Hui Chen, Chenxi Cai, Dianying Chen, "DPWE: Unified NER Model based on Dependency Parsing and Word-Word Label Expansion ",  International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP) 2025

2024

• Boon Peng Yap, Kok Liang Tan, Zhenghao Li, Rong Tong, "Speech Enabled Visual Acuity Test", Interspeech 2024

• Priyanshu Dhingra, Satyam Agrawal, Chandra Sekar Veerappan, Ho Thi Nga, Eng Siong Chng, Rong Tong, "Speech de-identification data augmentation leveraging large language model", International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP), pp. 97-102. IEEE,  2024  

• Qi Sun; Kun Huang; Xiaocui Yang; Rong Tong; Kun Zhang; Soujanya Poria, "Consistency Guided Knowledge Retrieval and Denoising in LLMs for Zero-shot Document-level Relation Triplet Extraction", WWW '24: Proceedings of the ACM on Web Conference 2024, May 2024, pp. 4407–4416 

• P Dhingra, S Satyam, CS Veerappan, C Eng Siong, R Tong, "Enhancing Speech De-identification with LLM-Based Data Augmentation", ICAICTA2024, pp. 1-5

• CS Veerappan, P Dhingra, Z Wang, R Tong, "SpeeDF-A Speech De-identification Framework", TENCON, pp. 31-34. IEEE, 2024

• Yaodi Liu, Kun Zhang, Rong Tong, Chenxi Cai, Dianying Chen, Xiaohe Wu, "A Flat-Span Contrastive Learning Method for Nested Named Entity Recognition",  International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP), pp. 37-42. IEEE, 2024    

2023 and before

• Rong Tong, Shih-Cheng Yen, Arthur Tay, Yiting Emily Guo, "Multilingual Aphasia Speech Analysis with Machine Learning ", Proceedings of the AAAI Symposium Series, 2023 

• Charangan Vasantharajan, Kyaw Zin Tun, Ho Thi-Nga, Sparsh Jain, Rong Tong and Chng Eng Siong, "MedBERT: A Pre-trained Language Model for Biomedical Named Entity Recognition ", APSIPA ASC, 2022

• Shengkui Zhao, Chongjia Ni, Rong Tong, BIn Ma, "Multi-Task Multi-Network Joint-Learning of Deep Residual Networks and Cycle-Consistency Generative Adversarial Networks for Robust Speech Recognition", INTERSPEECH 2019, 1238- 1242

• Chitralekha Gupta, Rong Tong, Haizhou Li, Ye Wang, "Semi-supervised Lyrics and Solo-singing Alignment", ISMIR 2018: 600-607

• Nguyen Bach, Hongjie Chen, Kai Fan, Cheung-Chi Leung, Bo Li, Chongjia Ni, Rong Tong, Pei Zhang, Boxing Chen, Bin Ma, Fei Huang, "Alibaba speech translation systems for IWSLT 2018", Proc. of the International Workshop on Spoken Language Translation, Bruges, Belgium

• Lei Wang, Rong Tong, Cheung-Chi Leung, S. Sivadas, Chongjia Ni and Bin Ma, "Cloud-based Automatic Speech Recognition systems for Southeast Asian Languages," 2017 International Conference on Orange Technologies (ICOT), 2017, pp. 147-150 

• Rong Tong, Lei Wang, Bin Ma, "Transfer learning for children's speech recognition ", IALP 2017: 36-39

• Minghui Dong, Chenyu Yang, Yanfeng Lu, Jochen Walter Ehnes, Dong-Yan Huang, Huaiping Ming, Rong Tong, Siu Wa Lee, Haizhou Li, "Mapping frames with DNN-HMM recognizer for non-parallel voice conversion ", APSIPA 2015: 488-494

• Lei Wang, Rong Tong, "Pronunciation modeling of foreign words for Mandarin ASR by considering the effect of language transfer ", INTERSPEECH 2014: 1443-1447

• Nancy F. Chen, Darren Wee, Rong Tong, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li,  "Large-scale characterization of non-native Mandarin Chinese spoken by speakers of European origin: Analysis on iCALL", Speech Communication. 84: 46-56 (2016)

• Rong Tong, Nancy F. Chen, Bin Ma: "Multi-Task Learning for Mispronunciation Detection on Singapore Children's Mandarin Speech", INTERSPEEH 2017: 2193-2197

• Nancy F. Chen, Rong Tong, Darren Wee, Pei Xuan Lee, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, "SingaKids-Mandarin: Speech Corpus of Singaporean Children Speaking Mandarin Chinese", INTERSPEECH 2016: 1545-1549

• Rong Tong, Nancy F. Chen, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, " Context Aware Mispronunciation Detection for Mandarin Pronunciation Training ", INTERSPEECH 2016: 3112-3116

• Nancy F. Chen, Rong Tong, Darren Wee, Pei Xuan Lee, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, "iCALL corpus: Mandarin Chinese spoken by non-native speakers of European descent ", INTERSPEECH 2015: 324-328

• Rong Tong, Nancy F. Chen, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, "Goodness of tone (GOT) for non-native Mandarin tone recognition ", INTERSPEECH 2015: 801-805

• Rong Tong, Nancy F. Chen, Boon Pang Lim, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, " Tokenizing fundamental frequency variation for Mandarin tone error detection ", ICASSP 2015: 5361-5365

• Rong Tong, Boon Pang Lim, Nancy F. Chen, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, "Subspace Gaussian mixture model for computer-assisted language learning ", ICASSP 2014: 5347-5351

• Rong Tong, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, Chng Eng Siong, "A Target-Oriented Phonotactic Front-End for Spoken Language Recognition", IEEE transactions on audio, speech, and language processing 17(7) 1335-1347 (2009)

• Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, Rong Tong,  "Spoken Language Recognition Using Ensemble Classifiers",  IEEE transactions on audio, speech, and language processing , 15(7) 2053-2062 (2007)

• Rong Tong, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, "Virtual example for phonotactic language recognition ", INTERSPEECH 2014: 3017-3021

• Rong Tong, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, Chng Eng Siong, " Target-Aware Lattice Rescoring for Dialect Recognition ",  INTERSPEECH 2011: 733-736

• Rong Tong, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, Engsiong Chng, "Selecting phonotactic features for language recognition ", INTERSPEECH 2010: 737-740

• A Larcher, KA Lee, H Li, B Ma, H Sun, R Tong, CH You, "IIR system description for the 2011 nist language recognition evaluation ", Proceedings of NIST 2011 Language Recognition Evaluation Workshop. Atlanta, USA, 2011

• C. Santhosh Kumar, Haizhou Li, Rong Tong, Pavel Matejka, Lukás Burget, Jan Cernocký, "Tuning phone decoders for language identification ", ICASSP 2010: 5010-5013

• Rong Tong, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, Engsiong Chng, Kong-Aik Lee, " Target-aware language models for spoken language recognition ", INTERSPEECH 2009: 200-203

• Haizhou Li, Bin Ma, Kong Aik Lee, H Sun, D Zhu, KC Sim, C You, R Tong, I Krkkinen, Chien-Lin Huang, V Pervouchine, W Guo, Y Li, L Dai, M Nosratighods, T Tharmarajah, J Epps, E Ambikairajah, EC Chng, T Schultz, Q Jin, "IIR system description for the 2009 NIST language recognition evaluation ", NIST LRE 2009 workshop 

• Cheung-Chi Leung, Rong Tong, Bin Ma and Haizhou Li, "A lattice-based phonotactic language recognition system with CMLLR adaptation and its implementation issues", IALP 2009: 285-288

• Haizhou Li, Bin Ma, Kong-Aik Lee, Hanwu Sun, Donglai Zhu, Khe Chai Sim, Changhuai You, Rong Tong, Ismo Kärkkäinen, Chien-Lin Huang, Vladimir Pervouchine, Wu Guo, Yijie Li, Li-Rong Dai, Mohaddeseh Nosratighods, Tharmarajah Thiruvaran, Julien Epps, Eliathamby Ambikairajah, Chng Eng Siong, Tanja Schultz, Qin Jin, "The I4U system in NIST 2008 speaker recognition evaluation", ICASSP 2009: 4201-4204

• Haizhou Li, Bin Ma, Kong-Aik Lee, Khe Chai Sim, Hanwu Sun, Rong Tong, Donglai Zhu, Changhuai You, "NIST 2007 Language Recognition Evaluation: From the Perspective of IIR", PACLIC 2008: 46-57

• Bin Ma, Hanwu Sun, Donglai Zhu, Haizhou Li, Kong-Aik Lee, Khe Chai Sim, Changhuai You, Rong Tong, Ismo Kärkkäinen, Chien-Lin Huang, Vladimir Pervouchine, Wu Guo, Yijie Li, Lirong Dai, Mohaddeseh Nosratighods, Thiruvaran Tharmarajah, Julien Epps, Eliathamby Ambikairajah, Eng-Siong Chng, Tanja Schultz, Qin Jin, "I4U Submission for the 2008 NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluation Submission ", 2008 NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluation Workshop 

• Rong Tong, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, Engsiong Chng, " Target-oriented phone tokenizers for spoken language recognition ", ICASSP 2008: 4221-4224

• Rong Tong, Bin Ma, Haizhou Li, Engsiong Chng, " Target-oriented phone selection from universal phone set for spoken language recognition ", INTERSPEECH 2008: 715-718

• Rong Tong, Haizhou Li, Bin Ma, Engsiong Chng, Siu-Yeung Cho, " Spoken Language Recognition with Relevance Feedback ", ICASSP 2007: 861-864

• Bin Ma, Rong Tong, Haizhou Li, "Discriminative Vector for Spoken Language Recognition", ICASSP 2007: 1001-1004

• Haizhou Li, Bin Ma, Rong Tong, "Vector-based spoken language recognition using output coding", INTERSPEECH 2006

• Jinyu Li, Sibel Yaman, Chin-Hui Lee, Bin Ma, Rong Tong, Donglai Zhu, Haizhou Li, "Language Recognition Based on Score Distribution Feature Vectors and Discriminative Classifier Fusion", Odyssey 2006: 1-5

• Rong Tong, Bin Ma, Donglai Zhu, Haizhou Li, Engsiong Chng, " Integrating Acoustic, Prosodic and Phonotactic Features for Spoken Language Identification ", ICASSP 2006: 205-208

• Bin Ma, Donglai Zhu, Rong Tong, Haizhou Li, "Speaker cluster based GMM tokenization for speaker recognition", INTERSPEECH 2006

• Bin Ma, Donglai Zhu, Rong Tong, "Chinese Dialect Identification Using Tone Features Based on Pitch Flux", ICASSP 2006: 1029-1032

• Rong Tong, Bin Ma, Kong-Aik Lee, Changhuai You, Donglai Zhu, Tomi Kinnunen, Hanwu Sun, Minghui Dong, Chng Eng Siong, Haizhou Li, "Fusion of Acoustic and Tokenization Features for Speaker Recognition", ISCSLP 2006: 566-577

• Kong-Aik Lee, Hanwu Sun, Rong Tong, Bin Ma, Minghui Dong, Changhuai You, Donglai Zhu, Chin-Wei Eugene Koh, Lei Wang, Tomi Kinnunen, Chng Eng Siong, Haizhou Li, "The IIR Submission to CSLP 2006 Speaker Recognition Evaluation". ISCSLP 2006: 494-505

• Donglai Zhu, Rong Tong, Bin Ma, and Haizhou Li, "Minimum Classification Error Based Optimal Linear Combination for Spoken Language Identification", ISCSLP 2006