New Faces 2010 - Paris Smaragdis

Education: PhD (perceptual computing), MS (media technology), Massachusetts Institute of Technology; BMus (music synthesis), Berklee College of Music.

Research Interests: Smaragdis’ primary research interests lie at the intersection of machine learning and signal processing. His current work to create machines that can listen is pioneering new devices to improve music recordings, safety and even televised broadcasts. His work on signal processing, machine learning and statistics as they relate to artificial perception and computational audition promises to open exciting avenues for collaboration at Illinois.

“Illinois has a long track record of innovation in the area of computational perception,” said Rob A. Rutenbar, Bliss Professor and head of computer science. “Machine vision, machine reading and machine learning are all core parts of the CS discipline.  Paris adds a whole new dimension to our department: machine listening. His work at the intersection of machine learning and signal processing is generating remarkable new methods for manipulating acoustic information in novel ways.”

Why Illinois? “Part of my research agenda is creating an artificial sense of hearing,” Smaragdis said. “This is a highly interdisciplinary area that, at times, will require me to act as an electrical engineer designing signal processing algorithms, as a computer scientist thinking about artificial intelligence, as a psychologist or neuroscientist that examines our ability to hear, or as a musician that tries to teach computers the elements of sound. At Illinois I have a chance to tap into world-class departments and scholars in all these areas (and many more). How could I resist the opportunity?”

Teaching at Illinois: CS 598, “Machine Learning for Signal Processing”
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