THANKS AND GREETINGS

Dear MAVEBA participant,

Thank you very much for participating in MAVEBA 2019 and celebrating together the twentieth anniversary of the Workshop! 

The International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal  Emissions for Biomedical Applications – MAVEBA – was born 20 years ago, early September 1999. Looking back to those days, I remember well the spirit of adventure that inspired this initiative, both on my side and on that of my colleague Piero Bruscaglioni, with whom I also shared many subsequent MAVEBA editions.

MAVEBA started because of our curiosity, and uninterruptedly went on thanks to the enthusiasm of the participants. And today? Curiosity and enthusiasm are still there, with the awareness of a fascinating and increasingly interdisciplinary world. The large number of contributions is the clear demonstration of this.

The main subjects of the Workshop concern methods for analyzing hoarseness and retrieving features of the human voice related to particular physiological or neurological conditions, with the aim of assessing reliable procedures for objective, quantitative definition of levels of voice disorders, singing voice parameters, newborn cry features, vocal fold and vocal tract modelling. Thanks to you, the level of contributions has been very high, as always.

MAVEBA 2019 was organized into nine Sessions, two Special Sessions, professionally coordinated by Dr. Franco Fussi and Dr. Philippe Dejonckere, and a Keynote lecture given by Dr. Thanasis Tsanas.

The interdisciplinarity, that has always characterized the MAVEBA workshops, is well highlighted by the themes addressed, listed below.

SESSION I – PARKINSON’S DISEASE AND SPEECH

SESSION II – SINGING VOICE

SESSION IIII – SPECIAL SESSION – EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION OF THE ARTISTIC VOICE

Coordinator: Franco Fussi

SESSION IV – VOICE AND EMOTIONS

SESSION V – VOICE QUALITY

SESSION VI – VOCAL FOLDS DYNAMICS

SESSION VII – COMET SESSION – ACTOR’S AND ACTRESS’VOICES

Coordinator: Philippe Dejonckere

SESSION VIII – VOCAL FOLDS PARALYSIS/ABNORMALITIES

SESSION IX – KEYNOTE LECTURE

DEVELOPING NEW SPEECH SIGNAL PROCESSING ALGORITHMS FOR BIOMEDICAL AND LIFE SCIENCES APPLICATIONS: PRINCIPLES, FINDINGS, CHALLENGES, AND A VIEW TO THE FUTURE

Thanasis Tsanas

SESSION X – BIOMECHANICS/DEVICES

SESSION XI – SPEECH

SESSION XII – VOICE VS OTHER PHYSIOLOGICAL SIGNALS/DISEASES

I am very grateful to the authors for their contribution, to all participants and chairpersons, that stimulated the discussion and helped to propose new research themes and methodologies of analysis in a field that will always be evolving, even and hopefully in the next twenty years.

Thank you also for your friendship and the relaxed and cordial atmosphere.

Special thanks and greetings to the CoMeT Association, that was present at MAVEBA with a large number of its members. The year 2019 was a special one for CoMeT too, celebrating the 50th anniversary from its foundation, and I am happy and proud that we could celebrate it together with the 20^th  anniversary of MAVEBA!

Last but not least, I greatly acknowledge the ScaramuzziTeam Congress Agency for its great professionalism, Dr.Eng. Alice Cavaliere, who manages and constantly updates the website, and Dr. Eng. Lorenzo Frassineti, PhD student, who collaborated in reviewing the Proceedings and solving the daily difficulties with patience and professionalism.

I look forward to meeting all of you again at the next MAVEBA!

Claudia Manfredi
Maveba Chair