Welcome to the homepage of Dr Christian Ritz! I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Wollongong, Australia.

Brief Biography

Christian graduated from the University of Wollongong in 1999 with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor of Mathematics and a PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Wollongong in 2003. His PhD research focused on very low bit rate coding of wideband speech using Waveform Interpolation (WI).

Since 2003, Christian has held a position within the School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Wollongong and is currently a Senior Lecturer.  His is a member of Whisper Laboratories and the Visual and Audio Signal Processing Lab of the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Research Institute.

Research Activities

Current research interests include single and multichannel speech signal processing, speech and audio coding, spatial audio signal processing, and multimedia content analysis, annotation and delivery.

Current projects include spatial and multichannel audio compression, multichannel recording and analysis of multiparty speech, acoustic vectors sensors for hands free communication, signal processing of motion capture data, semantic analysis and processing of multimedia content, semantic processing of social media content, perceptual processing and "quality of experience" estimation for media content and spatial and 3D audio signal processing.

I am a member of the Visual and Audio Signal Processing Lab, part of the ICT Research Institute. I am also the director of the University of Wollongong’s anechoic recording and playback facility.

Publication List (sourced via UOW Database)

            Current Research Projects

· Encoding and Communicating Navigable Soundfields, C Ritz and Ian Burnett (RMIT University), ARC Discovery Project, 2010-2012.

· Spatial Audio Coding. This project is investigating new techniques for compression of 3D audio. In particular, a new approach based on spatial squeezing has been developed.

· Acoustic Vector Sensors for Speech Processing and Enhancement. This project is investigating novel miniature microphone arrays for sound recording and processing, including speech signal analysis and enhancement.

· Microphone Array recording and analysis of Speech. This project is investigating the recording and analysis of multiparty speech recordings.

· Signal Processing for social media and new media services. This project, sponsored by the Smart Services CRC, is investigating new ways of analysing user generated content, such as Internet video and other media content.

Research Students

• Chao Sun : Motif Recovery in Spatio-Temporal Data Project

• Eva Cheng : Microphone Array Recording and Analysis of Speech

• Kevin Adistambha : Multimedia Search for Motion Capture Data

• Mohamed Barakat : Signal Processing for Social Media.

• Yi Cao : New Media Service based on User Generated Content

• Xiguang Zheng : Audio Signal Processing

• Muawiyath Shujau : Speech Processing

Teaching Activities

Grants and Projects:

· C Ritz, B James, et. al., “Quality Graduates become Professional Engineers”, ESDF/T&L, 2008.

 Subjects:

· ECTE203 Signals and Systems

· ECTE250 Engineering Design and Management 2

· ECTE906 Advanced Signals and Systems

Student consultation Times (Spring 11):

· Tuesday 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm, otherwise by prior appointment

Professional Activities

· Senior Member of the IEEE

· Member of the Audio Engineering Society

· Member of the International Speech Communications Association (ISCA)

· Associate Member of The Audio Engineering Society (AES)

· Member of The Australian Speech Science and Technology Association (ASSTA)