CHAMPAIGN - Stephen Levinson, 79, of Champaign passed away Wednesday (Sept. 27, 2023) with his wife, Diana E. Sheets, present.After a scientific and managerial career in research at Bell Laboratories, where Steve helped pioneer the development of automatic speech recognition, Steve joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at the University of Illinois in 1997. His focus later at Bell and for 22 years at ECE was on embodied language learning by means of anthropomorphic robots. In 2009, he was awarded an iCub by a European consortium, the first research team in the U.S. to be selected.After retirement in 2019, Steve battled progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and frontal temporal dementia.There are no plans for a funeral or memorial.Donations in Steve's name may be made to any of the follow organizations: Mystic Seaport, CurePSP, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts or the ECE Department.

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