IIT Madras Signs MoU with Nuance Communications

Faculty to develop innovative applications and foster start-ups through the strategic partnership

Chennai, 11 June 2008: Nuance Communications Inc.(NASDAQ) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IIT Madras’s TeNet Group (a coalition of faculty from the electrical engineering and computer science and engineering departments of Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai) to enter into a strategic, direct relationship to develop innovative applications based on Nuance technology. Mr. Steve Chambers, President of Mobile Solutions and Consumer Services at Nuance Communications and Prof. Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwal signed the MoU.

Nuance and TeNeT will jointly collaborate to develop applications relevant to the Indian market to adopt speech-based applications in e-commerce, remote healthcare and e-governance. Both of them will set-up and foster in-campus pilot projects with the aim to help incubate start-ups that will refine, scale and commercialize these solutions. Nuance will also setup a development and testing lab within TeNet. This is the first time that Nuance has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with an Institution in India.

Mr. Steve Chambers, President of Mobile Solutions and Consumer Services at Nuance said, “We are delighted to be associated with such a prestigious institute in India. This strategic relationship will help us develop innovative applications relevant to the Indian market by using Nuance technology.” He added, “We will also explore engaging the TeNeT faculty in an advisory role to provide direction, expertise and guidance with respect to emerging market and technology trends. They have a great pool of researchers and engineers.”

Prof. Dr. Ashok Jhunjunwala said, “Nuance Communications is a leading organization for providing speech and imaging solutions and it’s a great opportunity to work closely with them. Our focus is to address pressing needs of India and other developing countries by market-driven product development. This MoU is of real importance and will be beneficial for the researchers in product development.”

About Nuance Communications

Nuance is the leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and many businesses experience Nuance by calling directory assistance, requesting account information, dictating patient records, telling a navigation system their destination, or digitally reproducing documents that can be shared and searched. Making each of those experiences productive and compelling is what Nuance is all about. Nuance has the world’s largest speech library and Intellectual Property portfolio with over a 1000 patents and patent application. Nuance also has nearly 600 speech scientists.

About TeNeT Group

Established a decade ago, the TeNeT Group is a coalition of faculty from the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering Departments of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) located in Chennai, who work together towards a few common goals in research and product development. The focus is to address pressing needs of India and other developing countries by market-driven product development, strengthening of Indian telecom/networking industry, technical training and education, and driving telecom/IT policy. The vision is “World-class Technology at an Affordable Price”. The TeNeT Group has about two hundred full-time researchers, engineers and other technical staff, and project students working in over 10 dedicated labs. Currently, the Group works in diverse areas including Wireless Communications, Computer Networking, Fibre Optics, Digital Systems Architecture, Network Management Systems, Integrated Voice/Video/Data Communications, Indic Computing and applications for rural development.