Xavier Serra

Xavier Serra is a Full Professor at the Department of Engineering at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona. He is the founder and director of the Music Technology Group (MTG), and leads the UPF-BMAT Chair on AI and Music. He also coordinates the Master in Sound and Music Computing and serves as President of the Phonos Foundation. His research focuses on audio signal processing, sound and music computing, and computational musicology, emphasizing open science and open innovation.

Education:

• BSc in Biology, University of Barcelona (1981)
• Master in Music, Florida State University (1983)
• PhD in Computer Music, Stanford University (1989)

Research Interests:

• Audio Signal Processing
• Data-Driven and Knowledge-Driven Methodologies
• Music Information Retrieval
• Cultural Music Analysis (e.g., Carnatic/Turkish/Andalusian Music)
• Music Education Technology

Notable Projects:

• CompMusic (ERC Advanced Grant, 2010-2017): Multicultural computational music analysis
• Open datasets: Freesound, Saraga, FSD50K
• Technologies: Reactable, Vocaloid, Essentia API

Recent Trends in Articles: Focus on AI-driven audio processing (neural fingerprints, generative models), cross-cultural music analysis, and explainable music difficulty estimation.

Awards: ERC Advanced Grant (2010) for CompMusic Project.

Labs/Teams: Director of MTG, Phonos Foundation, and UPF-BMAT Chair. Active in open-source projects and international collaborations.