Paavo Alku

Paavo Alku is a Professor of Speech Communication Technology at Aalto University's Department of Information and Communications Engineering. With academic credentials from Helsinki University of Technology (M.Sc. 1986, Lic.Tech. 1988, Dr.Sc.Tech. 1992), he has held academic positions at Asian Institute of Technology (1993) and University of Turku (1994-1999).

• Current research focuses on speech production analysis, parametric speech synthesis, and speech-based biomarkers for health monitoring
• Actively develops machine learning models for voice disorder detection and Parkinson's disease classification
• Principal investigator for projects including SymptoSonic (2024-2025) and HEART (2020-2024)

His recent publications emphasize:

• Wavelet scattering for neurological speech analysis
• Fisher vector representations in voice disorder classification
• Machine learning approaches to vocal intensity categorization
• Respiratory aerosol emission during speech production
• Formant tracking through hybrid neural network/LP methods

Awarded:

• IEEE Fellow (2020)
• Academy Professor (2015-2019)
• Multiple best student paper awards at ICASSP and Interspeech