Toon van Waterschoot

Toon van Waterschoot is the Principal Investigator of the KU Leuven Audio Engineering Lab. He is currently an Associate Professor and Consolidator Grantee of the European Research Council (ERC) at KU Leuven.

Biography

As of 2018, I am an Associate Professor at KU Leuven, Belgium. I am affiliated to the Stadius Center for Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing, and Data Analytics (STADIUS), which I am heading since 2021, as well as to the e-Media Research Lab of the Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT).

In 2001, I graduated as a Master in Electrical Engineering at KU Leuven, after which I spent a year as a teaching assistant with the Hogere Zeevaartschool Antwerpen, Belgium. One year later, in 2002, I returned to KU Leuven to start a PhD research project on signal processing applied to audio and acoustics, funded by the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen), which I succesfully terminated in 2009 under the supervision of Prof. Marc Moonen. In 2010, I moved to Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, where I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Prof. Geert Leus, working on distributed signal processing for wireless sensor networks. In 2011, I received a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen), which enabled me to return again to KU Leuven for initiating a 3-year research program on acoustic signal enhancement in cooperation with Prof. Marc Moonen and Prof. Moritz Diehl. In 2013, I was appointed as an Assistant Professor at KU Leuven, Belgium, where I am currently supervising a team of researchers working in the field of audio engineering and signal processing. From 2013 to 2016, I have also been serving as a Scientific Coordinator for the FP7-PEOPLE Marie Curie Initial Training Network “Dereverberation and Reverberation of Audio, Music, and Speech (DREAMS)” funded by the European Commission. In 2017, I have been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC), which allows me and my research team to explore the analysis and synthesis of complex dynamic sound scenes in the ERC project “The Spatial Dynamics of Room Acoustics (SONORA)”, 2018-2023. I was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018, and since 2021 I have been heading the STADIUS research division. Also since 2021, I am coordinating the H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie European Training Network “Service-Oriented, Ubiquitous, Network-Driven Sound (SOUNDS)”.

I have been teaching various courses at the Faculty of Engineering Techology and the Faculty of Engineering Science of KU Leuven, including digital signal processing, control theory, signals & systems, optimization, multimedia, databases and web design. I have also been teaching digital signal processing (with Prof. Marc Moonen and Prof. Søren Holdt Jensen) at the Advanced Learning and Research Institute (ALaRI) of the University of Lugano, Switzerland. My current teaching activities are mostly in mathematics, including courses on algebra, calculus, geometry, and systems theory at the Campus Group T of KU Leuven.

Next to my academic career, I’ve been spending quite some time studying and playing music. I’ve been involved in the composition and performance of a wide range of musical styles, from experimental trash rock over electronic music to classical and early music. I started studying music at the age of 8, and since then I’ve been performing and touring with a number of rock bands, small ensembles, and orchestras, in Belgium as well as abroad. I’ve been lucky to have several inspiring musical mentors with whom I’ve been studying brass instruments (flugelhorn, bass), string instruments (guitar, violin), and keyboard instruments (piano, organ). In 2001, I obtained a violin diploma (summa cum laude) and in 2020 an organ diploma in the Flemish part-time music education program. I am currently again enrolled in such a program, now studying both harpsichord and organ and focusing on early music. Finally, I also enjoy renovating old houses, volunteering in all kinds of organizations, and of course spending time with my wife and three kids.

Academic CV

Degrees

PhD in Electrical Engineering, KU Leuven, Belgium, Mar. 2009
MSc in Electrical Engineering, *KU Leuven, Belgium, Jun. 2001

Academic Positions

ERC Consolidator Grantee, KU Leuven, Belgium (2018—ongoing)
Associate Professor, KU Leuven, Belgium (2018—ongoing)
Assistant Professor (tenure-track), KU Leuven, Belgium (2013–2018)
Visiting Lecturer, University of Lugano, Switzerland (2005–2016)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen), KU Leuven, Belgium (2011–2014)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands (2010–2011)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, KU Leuven, Belgium (2009–2010)
PhD Fellow of the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen), KU Leuven, Belgium (2004–2007)
Research Assistant, KU Leuven, Belgium (2002–2009)
Teaching Assistant, Antwerp Maritime Academy, Belgium (2002)

Short Research Visits

Mathematical Statistics (Prof. Andreas Jakobsson), Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Lund University, Sweden, Nov. 2012
Division of Systems and Control (Prof. Kristiaan Pelckmans, Prof. Peter Stoica), Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Sweden, May 2012
Signal Processing (Prof. Simon Doclo), Institute of Physics, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany, Feb. 2011
Multimedia Information and Signal Processing (Prof. Søren Holdt Jensen), Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, Denmark, Dec. 2010

Awards

KU Leuven Teaching Awards (Best organised professor, Most approachable professor, Best course in the (bio)chemical engineering program), KU Leuven Campus Group T Student Council, Leuven, Belgium, 2019.
ERC Consolidator Grant, European Research Council (ERC), Brussels, Belgium, 2018.
Board of Governors Award, Audio Engineering Society (AES), Milan, Italy, 2018
EUSIPCO-2016 Best Paper Award (M. Mounir, P. Karsmakers, and T. van Waterschoot, “Guitar note onset detection based on a spectral sparsity measure”), 24th European Signal Process. Conf. (EUSIPCO ’16), Budapest, Hungary, Aug. 2016 (Co-author)
Best Master Thesis Prize (Mina Shehata, “Note Onset Detection Using Sparse Over-Complete Representation of Musical Signals”, supervised by Prof. Miroslaw Malek (University of Lugano, Switzerland) and Prof. Toon van Waterschoot (KU Leuven, Belgium)), Swissengineering Ticino, Lugano, Switzerland, Mar. 2014 (Supervisor) ### Scholarships – Research Grants
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Maja Taseska (3 years – 300 kEUR), Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen), Belgium, 2018–2021 (Supervisor)
ERC Consolidator Grant “SONORA” (5 years – 2 MEUR), European Research Council (ERC), 2018–2023 (PI)
FWO Large-Scale Research Infrastructure Grant “The Library of Voices” (4 years – 1.1 MEUR), Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen), Belgium, 2018–2022 (Supervisor)
Industrial R&D Project “SPOTT” (2 years – 287 kEUR), Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO), Belgium, 2018–2020 (PI)
CSC PhD Scholarship Duowei Tang (4 years – 58 kEUR), China Scholarship Council (CSC), China, 2016–2020 (PI)
Category 2 Project “WLAAN” (4 years – 653 kEUR), KU Leuven Research Fund (BOF), Belgium, 2016–2020 (Supervisor)
TETRA Research Valorization Project “m-Sense” (2 years – 354 kEUR), Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO), Belgium, 2015–2017 (Supervisor)
Verkennende Europese Samenwerking (VES) “SOUNDS” (4 years – 25 kEUR), KU Leuven Research Fund (BOF), Belgium, 2016–2020 (PI)
Industrial R&D Project “Ravenna” (2 years – 287 kEUR), Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO), Belgium, 2015–2017 (PI)
Industrial R&D Project “Cochlear-VII” (3 years – 419 kEUR), Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen), Belgium, 2015–2018 (Supervisor)
Impulse project “SparsEvent” (4 years – 185 kEUR), KU Leuven Impulse Fund, Belgium, 2014–2018 (PI)
Baekeland PhD Scholarship Martyn Hemeryck (5 years – 300 kEUR), Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen), Belgium, 2014–2019 (PI)
BOF-F+ Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Enzo De Sena (1 year – 35 kEUR), KU Leuven Research Fund (BOF), Belgium, 2014–2016 (Supervisor)
Verkennende Europese Samenwerking (VES) “MEDIA” (2 years – 15 kEUR), KU Leuven Research Fund (BOF), Belgium, 2014–2016 (PI)
Marie Curie Initial Training Network “DREAMS” (4 years – 4.1 MEUR), Research Executive Agency (REA) of the European Commission (EC), 2013–2016 (PI)
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (3 years – 297 kEUR), Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen), Belgium, 2011–2014 (Grantee)
Travel grant (17th European Signal Process. Conf., Glasgow, Scotland, UK – 0.2 kEUR), Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen), Belgium, Aug. 2009 (Grantee)
PhD Scholarship (4 years – 90 kEUR), Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen), Belgium, 2004–2007 (Grantee)

Memberships

Audio Engineering Society (AES), Associate
Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Associate
European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP), Member
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Member

Scholarly Service

Professional Organizations

Treasurer, Board of Directors (2017-2020), European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP)
Founding Member (since 2017), European Acoustics Association (EAA) Technical Committee in Audio Signal Processing
Member (2016-2021), IEEE Technical Committee on Audio and Acoustic Signal Processing
Nominated Officer (2012-2016), European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP)

Journal Activities

Associate Editor (since 2013), Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (Audio Engineering Society)
Associate Editor (since 2012), EURASIP Journal on Audio, Speech, and Music Processing (Springer)
Guest Editor, Special issue on “Dereververation and Reverberation of Audio, Music, and Speech” (vol. 65, no. 1/2, Jan./Feb. 2017) , Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (Audio Engineering Society)
Guest Editor, Special issue on “Wireless acoustic sensor networks and ad-hoc microphone arrays” (vol. 107, Feb. 2015) , Signal Processing (Elsevier)
Technical Reviewer, JASA Express Letters (Acoustical Society of America)
Technical Reviewer, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (Acoustical Society of America)
Technical Reviewer, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (Audio Engineering Society)
Technical Reviewer, Computers & Electrical Engineering (Elsevier)
Technical Reviewer, Computer Speech & Language (Elsevier)
Technical Reviewer, Digital Signal Processing (Elsevier)
Technical Reviewer, Signal Processing (Elsevier)
Technical Reviewer, Speech Communication (Elsevier)
Technical Reviewer, Advances in Acoustics and Vibration (Hindawi)
Technical Reviewer, Journal of Computer Systems, Networks, and Communications (Hindawi)
Technical Reviewer, IEEE Communications Letters (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, IEEE Signal Processing Letters (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Multimedia (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics – Part C: Applications and Reviews (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences (IEICE)
Technical Reviewer, IET Electronics Letters (IET)
Technical Reviewer, IET Signal Processing (IET)
Technical Reviewer, International Journal of Acoustics and Vibration (International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration)
Technical Reviewer, Inverse Problems in Science & Engineering (Taylor &Francis)
Technical Reviewer, EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing (Springer)
Technical Reviewer, EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (Springer)
Technical Reviewer, Progress In Electromagnetics Research (The Electromagnetics Academy) / Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications (Brill)

Conference Activities

PC Member, Machines with Emotions (MwE ’19) (TU Munich)
…
Session Chair (“Music signal modeling, analysis, processing and synthesis”), 26th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’18) (EURASIP)
TPC Member, 26th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’18) (EURASIP)
Area Subchair (“Quality and Intelligibility Measures”), 2018 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP ’18) (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, 2018 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP ’18) (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, 2017 5th IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing (GlobalSIP ’17) (IEEE)
Publications Chair, 2017 IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics (WASPAA ’17) (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, 2017 IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics (WASPAA ’17) (IEEE)
TPC Member, 25th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’17) (EURASIP)
Area Chair (“Bioacoustics and Medical Acoustics”) & Subchair (“Quality and Intelligibility Measures”), 2017 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP ’17) (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, 2017 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP ’17) (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, 13th International Conference on Latent Variable Analysis and Signal Separation (LVA/ICA ’17) (GIPSA-Lab)
Organizing Committee Member, 4th European Conference on Computational Optimization (EUCCO ’16) (KU Leuven Optimization in Engineering Center, FP7-PEOPLE Marie Curie ITN TEMPO)
Special Session Co-Organizer and Co-Chair (“Fast and Embedded Convex Optimization for Signal Processing”), 24th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’16) (EURASIP)
Technical Reviewer, 2016 AES International Conference on Headphone Technology (AES)
Technical Reviewer, 2016 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP ’16) (IEEE)
General Chair, 60th Audio Engineering Society (AES) Conference (AES, FP7-PEOPLE Marie Curie ITN DREAMS)
Session Chair (“Speaker recognition and characterization”), 23rd European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’15) (EURASIP)
Special Session Organizer and Chair (“Processing of Reverberant Speech and Audio Signals”), 23rd European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’15) (EURASIP)
Area Chair (“Speech processing”), 23rd European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’15) (EURASIP)
Technical Reviewer, 14th International Workshop on Acoustic Signal Enhancement (IWAENC ’14) (IEEE)
Session Chair (“Speech processing”), 22nd European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’14) (EURASIP)
Area Chair (“Speech processing”), 22nd European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’14) (EURASIP)
TPC Member, 22nd European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’14) (EURASIP)
Scientific Committee Member, 2014 REVERB Workshop (REVERB Challenge)
Technical Reviewer, 2014 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP ’14) (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, 2013 IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics (WASPAA ’13) (IEEE)
Area Chair (“Speech processing”), 21st European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’13) (EURASIP)
TPC Member, 21st European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’13) (EURASIP)
Technical Reviewer, 14th IEEE International Workshop on Signal Processing Advances for Wireless Communications (SPAWC ’13) (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP ’13) (IEEE)
Special Session Co-Organizer and Co-Chair (“Audio processing algorithms for ad-hoc microphone arrays and wireless acoustic sensor networks”, with Alexander Bertrand), 20th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’12) (EURASIP)
Session Chair (“Wireless sensor networks”), 20th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’12) (EURASIP)
TPC Member, 20th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’12) (EURASIP)
TPC Member, 13th IEEE International Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications (SPAWC ’12) (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, 2012 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC ’12) (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, 4th International Workshop on Computational Advances in Multi-Sensor Adaptive Processing (CAMSAP ’11) (IEEE/EURASIP)
TPC Member, 19th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’11) (EURASIP)
Technical Reviewer, 12th IEEE International Workshop on Signal Processing Advances for Wireless Communications (SPAWC ’11) (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC ’11) (IEEE)
TPC Member, 3rd International Congress on Image and Signal Processing (CISP ’10) (IEEE)
Technical Reviewer, 21st Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC ’10) (IEEE)
Special Session Co-Organizer and Co-Chair (“System-identification-based acoustic signal enhancement”, with Marc Moonen), 18th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’10) (EURASIP)
Area Chair (“Speech processing”), 18th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’10) (EURASIP)
TPC Member, 18th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’10) (EURASIP)
Technical Reviewer, 2008 IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS ’08) (IEEE)

Seasonal Schools & Tutorials

Tutorial Presenter, Dereverberation and Reverberation of Audio, Music, and Speech, 25th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO ’17), Kos, Greece, Aug. 2017 (EURASIP)
Co-organizer, PhD School Advanced Psychoacoustics: Theory, Practice and Modelling , Aalborg, Denmark, Nov. 10-14, 2014 (FP7-PEOPLE Marie Curie ITN DREAMS, EURASIP, Aalborg University)
Main organizer, DREAMS 2014 Summer School , Leuven, Belgium, Sept. 15-19, 2014 (FP7-PEOPLE Marie Curie ITN DREAMS)

Funding Agencies

Reviewer, Brussels Institute for Research and Innovation (Innoviris), Belgium
Reviewer, French National Research Agency (ANR), France

PhD Committees

Bram Geelen (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (assessor)
Melkamu Hunegnaw Asmare (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (assessor)
Carlos André Muñoz López (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (assessor)
Yehualashet Megersa Ayano (KU Leuven, Belgium & Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia), Predoc Supervisory Committee (supervisor)
Bisrat Derebssa Dufera (KU Leuven, Belgium & Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia), Supervisory Committee (supervisor)
Amin Hassani (KU Leuven, Belgium), Examination Committee
Duowei Tang (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (supervisor)
Ted Kronvall (Lund Universitet, Sweden), Examination Committee
Bert Van Den Broeck (KU Leuven, Belgium), Examination Committee
Filip Elvander (Lund Universitet, Sweden), Licentiate Examination Committee (opponent)
Mateusz Matuszewski (Università Politecnica Delle Marche, Italy), Referee
Bert Cox (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (assessor)
Giampiero Accardo (Università Politecnica Delle Marche, Italy), Referee
Esmael Kedir Nida (KU Leuven, Belgium), Predoc Examination Committee
Filippos Ineglis (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (co-supervisor)
Federico Bolner (KU Leuven, Belgium), Doctoral Committee (evaluator)
Randall Ali (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (co-supervisor)
Elior Hadad (Bar-Ilan University, Israel), Referee
Randall Ali (KU Leuven, Belgium), Predoc Examination Committee
Lenn Carpentier (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (assessor)
Ted Kronvall (Lund Universitet, Sweden), Licentiate Examination Committee (opponent)
Wim Buyens (KU Leuven, Belgium), Examination Committee
Joseph Szurley (KU Leuven, Belgium), Examination Committee
Martijn Boussé (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (assessor)
Martijn Hemeryck (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (supervisor)
Thomas Dietzen (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (supervisor)
Fernando de la Hucha Arce (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (assessor)
Dimitar Spirrov (KU Leuven, Belgium), Doctoral Committee (evaluator)
Mina Mounir Abd El Messih Shehata (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (supervisor)
Nico Vervliet (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (assessor)
Attila Kozma (KU Leuven, Belgium), Examination Committee
Gert Dekkers (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (supervisor)
Neo Kaplanis (Aalborg University, Denmark), Supervisory Committee (co-supervisor)
Niccoló Antonello (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (co-supervisor)
Ante Jukić (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany), Supervisory Committee (co-supervisor)
Giacomo Vairetti (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (co-supervisor)
Pablo Peso Parada (Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, UK), Supervisory Committee (co-supervisor)
Giuliano Bernardi (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (co-supervisor)
Bruno Defraene (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (co-supervisor)
Jose Manuel Gil-Cacho (KU Leuven, Belgium), Supervisory Committee (co-supervisor)

Affiliation

University of Leuven ( KU Leuven )

Faculty of Engineering Technology ( FIIW )

Department of Electrical Engineering ( ESAT ) (1) Stadius Center for Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing, and Data Analytics ( STADIUS ) (2) Electrical Engineering Technology Cluster (ESAT-ETC) – e-Media Research Lab