Dr. Richard Stern

Professor of Electrical Engineering

Bio

Richard M. Stern is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, a Professor by Courtesy in the Language Technologies Institute and the Department of Computer Science, and an Artist Lecturer in the School of Music at CMU.  He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in electrical engineering in 1976.  He has been deeply involved with the School of Music’s programs in Music and Technology since 2007. 

Professor Stern’s research spans a variety of topics involving sound, speech, hearing, and music.  Within the School of Music, he is particularly interested in topics related to music understanding, automated accompaniment, and music information retrieval. 

Much of Richard Stern's current research is in spoken language systems, where he is particularly concerned with the development of techniques with which automatic speech processing can be made more robust with respect to changes in environment and acoustical ambience.  In addition to his work in speech recognition, Richard Stern has worked extensively in psychoacoustics, where he is best known for theoretical work in binaural perception.  Dr. Stern is a Fellow of the IEEE, the Acoustical Society of America, and the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA).  He has served as the ISCA Distinguished Lecturer, and he was a recipient of the Allen Newell Award for Research Excellence in 1992, as well as the Lutron Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018.  He also served as the General Chair of Interspeech 2006, and in many other governmental, professional, and academic capacities. 

Richard Stern is also well known for his solo and chamber music performances on harpsichord.  He is a former student of Martin Pearlman in Boston and (briefly) Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. He also studied music theory and history with David Epstein and Robert Freeman as a music major at MIT.  He has performed in solo and chamber music recitals on historical instruments as a founding member of the 415 Players Baroque Ensemble, and in appearances as a guest artist with the Chatham Baroque Ensemble.  He has also performed with many members of the Pittsburgh Symphony as a member of the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Project, the Pittsburgh Baroque Ensemble, as a guest artist appearing with the Ionian Chamber Players and the Renaissance City Winds, and on the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Community Concert Series, Shadyside Concerts, Music in a Great Space, and other recital series.