Thomas Deppisch recently joined the Aalto Acoustics Lab as a postdoctoral researcher working with Professor Johannes M. Arend. In September, he attended Forum Acusticum 2026, one of Europe’s largest acoustics conferences with more than 1,000 participants, held in Graz, Austria. There, he received the European Acoustics Association’s Best Paper and Presentation Award for Young Researchers.
The recognized paper, 'Direction-Preserving MIMO Speech Enhancement Using a Neural Covariance Estimator,' was completed at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, as part of Deppisch's PhD research under the supervision of Professor Jens Ahrens, shortly before he came to Aalto University.
This research combines signal processing with a lightweight neural network to enhance speech recorded with multiple microphones while preserving the spatial characteristics of the sound field. In practice, it could help future hearing and communication devices make speech easier to understand without losing the sense of acoustic space. 'This means that people with hearing difficulties could wear a device with integrated microphones, for example a pair of smart glasses or hearing aids, and use the algorithm to understand each other better in a noisy environment,' Deppisch explains.
The award includes prize money of EUR 1,000, sponsored by the HEAD-Genuit Foundation.
Read the article on arxiv:
arxiv.org/pdf/2604.11179
Audio samples available on GitHub:
thomasdeppisch.github.io/MIMO-speech-enhancement/
Aalto Acoustics Lab is a multidisciplinary research center focusing on audio processing and spatial sound technologies. The laboratory gathers professors and research teams from three different units: Department of Information and Communications Engineering, Department of Computer Science, and Department of Art and Media.
Professor Johannes M. Arend was honoured for his innovative and groundbreaking work in the fields of binaural technology and virtual acoustics
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