Dr Iran Roman
Lecturer
School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science
Queen Mary University of London
Research
Theoretical neuroscience, Machine Perception, Artificial Intelligence
Interests
Iran R. Roman is a Lecturer at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of Queen Mary University of London. Within Queen Mary, he is a member of the Center for Multimodal AI, Center for Digital Music, Center for Human-Centered Computing, the Computer Vision group, and the Cognitive Science group.
His research area is machine perception, with the goal of creating algorithms that allow computers to perceive environments as living agents do. To this end, Iran has developed algorithms that leverage multimodal signals to sense, identify, and track objects in the real world. These algorithms draw inspiration from the neural mechanisms that allow living organisms to carry out similar tasks. Iran’s work has found applications in products at companies such as Apple, Tesla, Raytheon/BBN, and Plantronics. His research has been funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
On the academic service side, he serves as reviewer for IEEE ICASSP, IEEE MLSP, ISMIR, eLife, and Music & Science. Iran is also a volunteer professor for the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and the organizer of the annual Deep Learning for Music Information Retrieval workshop at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University.
Publications

Publications of specific relevance to the Centre for Multimodal AI
2025
Evaluating Multimodal Large Language Models on Core Music Perception TasksCarone B Roman Guzman I Ripollés P
39th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2025) Workshop: AI for Music.
07-12-2025
Latent Acoustic Mapping for Direction of Arrival Estimation: A Self-Supervised ApproachRoman A Roman I Bello J
IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics (WASPAA).
12-10-2025
Vibe Sorcery: Integrating Emotion Recognition with Generative Music for Playlist CurationUrrego-Gómez I Colton S Roman I
International Society for Music Information Retrieval: 1st Workshop on Large Language Models for Music & Audio (LLM4MA).
20-09-2025
Decoding Melodic Acoustic Features from Neural DataBozilovic Z Roman I
AES International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Audio.
08-09-2025
Spectrotemporal Modulation: Efficient and Interpretable Feature Representation for Classifying Speech, Music, and Environmental SoundsChang A Li Y Roman I Poeppel D
Interspeech.
17-08-2025
Combining Recurrent & Bayesian Models for Action Anticipation with Multiple CuesZimokha M Jamone L Roman I
Cognitive Computational Neuroscience.
12-08-2025
Toward Affective Empathy in AI: Encoding Internal Representations of “Artificial Pain”Wang A Roman I
Cognitive Computational Neuroscience.
12-08-2025
Guitar-TECHS: An Electric Guitar Dataset Covering Techniques, Musical Excerpts, Chords and Scales Using a Diverse Array of HardwarePedroza H Abreu W Corey R Roman I
IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP) 2025.
06-04-2025
Musical neurodynamicsHarding EE Kim JC Demos A Roman I Tichko P
Nature Reviews Neuroscience,
Nature Research 18-03-2025
Perceptually-Guided Acoustic FoveationPeng X Chen K Roman I
2025 IEEE Conference Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR). vol. 00, 450-460.
12-03-2025
Design and Implementation of the Transparent, Interpretable, and Multimodal (TIM) AR Personal AssistantMcGowan E Rulff J Castelo S Wu G Chen S Roman IR Dias FF Qian J
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications,
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) vol. 45 (1), 28-42.
01-01-20252024
HuBar: A Visual Analytics Tool to Explore Human Behavior Based on fNIRS in AR Guidance SystemsCastelo S Rulff J Solunke P McGowan E Wu G Roman I Lopez R Sun Q et al.
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics,
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) vol. 31 (1), 119-129.
25-11-2024
LEVERAGING REAL ELECTRIC GUITAR TONES AND EFFECTS TO IMPROVE ROBUSTNESS IN GUITAR TABLATURE TRANSCRIPTION MODELINGPedroza H Abreu W Corey R
27th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx24).
03-09-2024
Robust DoA Estimation from Deep Acoustic ImagingRoman AS Roman IR
ICASSP 2024 - 2024 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP). vol. 00, 1321-1325.
19-04-2024
Spatial Scaper: A Library to Simulate and Augment Soundscapes for Sound Event Localization and Detection in Realistic RoomsRoman IR Ick C Roman AS McFee B
ICASSP 2024 - 2024 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP). vol. 00, 1221-1225.
19-04-20242023
: Visualization of AI-Assisted Task Guidance in ARCastelo S Rulff J McGowan E Steers B Wu G Chen S Roman I Brewer E et al.
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics,
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) vol. 30 (1), 1313-1323.
02-11-2023
Sound Source Distance Estimation in Diverse and Dynamic Acoustic ConditionsKushwaha SS Roman IR Fuentes M
2023 IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics (WASPAA). vol. 00, 1-5.
25-10-2023
Exploring Approaches to Multi-Task Automatic Synthesizer ProgrammingFaronbi D Roman I
ICASSP 2023 - 2023 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP). vol. 00, 1-5.
10-06-2023
Hebbian learning with elasticity explains how the spontaneous motor tempo affects music performance synchronizationRoman IR Roman AS Kim JC Large EW
Plos Computational Biology,
Public Library of Science (Plos) vol. 19 (6)
07-06-2023
F0 analysis of Ghanaian pop singing reveals progressive alignment with equal temperament over the past three decades: a case studyRoman Guzman I
20th Sound and Music Computing Conference, SMC 2023.
01-06-2023
Dynamic models for musical rhythm perception and coordinationLarge EW Roman I Kim JC Cannon J Trainor LJ
Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience,
Frontiers vol. 17
17-05-20232022
Reconstructing room scales with a single sound for augmented reality displaysLiang BS Liang AS Roman I Weiss T Sun Q
Journal of Information Display,
Taylor & Francis vol. 24 (1), 1-12.
15-11-2022
Analyzing the effect of equal-angle spatial discretization on sound event localization and detectionRoman Guzman I
Detection and Classification of Acoustic Scenes and Events 2022.
03-11-20222021
micarraylib: Software for Reproducible Aggregation, Standardization, and Signal Processing of Microphone Array Datasets.Roman Guzman I Bello J
Detection and Classification of Acoustic Scenes and Events 2021.
15-11-2021
Analyzing Pitch Content In Traditional Ghanaian Seperewa SongsWalls K Roman I Van Ert K Harper C Adu-Gilmore L
1st Latin American Music Information Retrieval (LAMIR) workshop.
Grants

Grants of specific relevance to the Centre for Multimodal AI
EPSRC additional skills funding summer 2025Akram Alomainy,
Iran Roman, Ella Rice,
Maria Liakata,
Simon Dixon, Giorgio Chianello,
Andrew Livingston,
Kostas Papafitsoros,
Silvia Liverani,
Eleni Matechou and
Linus Wunderlich£180,000
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
01-10-2025 - 31-03-2026
Research Group
PhD Students
News
October 2025
6 October 2025
On 12-15 October, several CMAI researchers will participate at the 2025 IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics, taking place at the Granlibakken Tahoe Resort near Lake Tahoe, in Tahoe City, CA, USA. WASPAA is a premier event in the field of audio signal processing, organised by ... [more]

April 2025
9 April 2025
Dr. Iran R. Roman, Lecturer of Artificial Intelligence at the Centre for Multimodal AI and Centre for Human-Centered Computing, and a group of external collaborators have revealed a groundbreaking theory explaining how the brain transforms sound into the human experience of music.
Read the full story at: https://www.qmul.... [more]

March 2025
24 March 2025
On 6-11 April 2025, several CMAI researchers will participate at the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP 2025). ICASSP is the leading conference in the field of signal processing and the flagship event of the IEEE Signal Processing Society.
As in previous years, the Centre for Multimodal AI ... [more]
