During his visit to the Department of Statistics, University of California, Berkeley, Prof. Cvetkovic will be hosted by Prof. Yu, in the Statistical Machine Learning group. He will be focusing on topics of the current activity of Prof. Yu's group, that can be broadly described as statistical machine learning theory, methodologies, and algorithms for solving high-dimensional data problems. Particular problems covered include sparse modelling (e.g. Lasso, compressed sensing), structured sparsity, analysis and methods for spectral clustering, and applications to data which come from a diverse range of interdisciplinary areas, ranging from neuroscience to social networks. During this visit, Prof. Cvetkovic and Prof. Yu will set forth directions for collaboration on problems in learning in high-dimensions, leading to a research grant proposal.
During his previous EPSRC project, EP/D053005/1, Prof. Cvetkovic in collaboration with Prof. Sollich, Department of Mathematics, King's College London, and Prof. Yu developed an unorthodox approach to robust speech recognition in high-dimensional spaces of acoustic waveforms of speech. Dr. Horacio Franco, Director of Speech Technology and Research Laboratory of SRI International, who in 2010 won a major DARPA award for solving the problem of the sensitivity of automatic speech recognition systems to additive noise, finds this approach groundbreaking and expresses a strong interest in exploring venues for collaboration.
The purpose of this visit would be to investigate ways in which the approach developed by Prof. Cvetkovic and his collaborators can be brought closer to practice and based on that investigate the directions of long-term collaboration and possible joint grant proposals between SRI International, King's College London, and UC Berkeley.
At King's College, Prof. Cvetkovic has commenced work on a new multichannel audio technology, supported by EPSRC grant EP/F001142/1. The project produced a considerable publication volume and patent portfolio. A visit to one of world leading centres for music and acoustics technologies, such as CCRMA, would be very beneficial for taking advantage of this gained momentum to penetrate the field, which is still a new application area for Prof. Cvetkovic, at a deeper level, expand its scope, establish collaborations, and inform future grant proposals. At CCRMA, Prof. Cvetkovic will be interacting primarily with Prof. Julius Smith, working on multichannel audio technologies, and other signal processing problems in audio and acoustics. A recent work of Prof. Cvetkovic complements a large volume of work of Prof. Smith on ultra fast rendition of multichannel audio using digital waveguide networks (DWNs). This is an area which is of a significant academic interest, requiring interdisciplinary approaches at the interface of signal processing, acoustics, psychoacoustic, and computer science, as well of a great relevance to virtual reality and gaming applications. While this would be the area of initial focus, at CCRMA there are several other ongoing projects which are closely related to Prof. Cvetkovic's research or research in the Institute of Telecommunications at King's (Mobile Phone Orchestra, Sound in Space, Music in Virtual Worlds), as well as projects which could provide valuable inspiration for possible collaborative projects between the Department of Music and the Institute of Telecommunications at King's and CCRMA (Sound Waves on the Internet for Real-time Echoes, and the Historical Recordings). Finally, most of the largest companies which are potential licensees of Prof. Cvetkovic'c audio technology, such as DTS, Dolby, Microsoft, are based on the west coast of the US. The presence of Prof. Cvetkovic at CCRMA would accelerate the exploration of licensing opportunities, as these and other relevant companies frequently visit CCRMA, and are situated in the Bay Area or not too far from it.
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