P.I. profile

Julián Alberto Villegas Orozco

Education

• Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering, 2010 (University of Aizu, Japan)
• M.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering, 2006 (University of Aizu, Japan)
• B.S. in Electronic Engineering, 2001 (University of Valle, Colombia)
• Fluent in Japanese, English, and Spanish (native)

Experience

• University of Aizu (Japan) Senior Associate Professor / since 2013: Teaching/supervising undergrad and grad courses/students. Research and administrative activities.
• Ikerbasque (Spain) Researcher / 2010-2013: In “the Listening Talker,” an EU-funded project to develop techniques to improve speech intelligibility in noisy conditions.
• CIRMMT–McGill University (Canada) Guest Researcher / 2008: Collaborative research on musical dissonance, roughness, spatial audio, and preference.
• Colombian National Productivity Center (Colombia) IT project manager / 2000-2003: Research and development, web-based application development, development coordinator, marketing, and promotion.

Research accomplishments

• 7 JSPS-Kakenhi projects
• 6 projects from other agencies
• 8 book chapters
• +30 peer-reviewed articles in indexed journals
• +70 peer-reviewed conference articles.
• +20 invited talks and +30 non-referred publications
• +490 citations, h-index > 11, i10-index > 14 (Google Scholar )
• 2 granted Japanese patents (6770698, 6971467), two more in review.
• D Maru Go Qualification.

Education accomplishments

• 2 PhD candidates (3 more supervised in the past)
• 7 graduate students under supervision (21 more supervised in the past)
• 10 undergraduate students under supervision (37 more in the past)
• 8 PhD Committee Member
• 3 undergraduate, 2 graduate, and 3 extension courses implemented.

Other academic merits

• Qualified as "tenure-track lecturer" by AQU Catalunya qualification agency (6NV8BFVS9)
• Guest editor of Virtual Reality, vol. 19, no. 3 (2015)
• Ad hoc referee for +20 indexed journals and conferences.
• Senior Member of IEEE, Member of Acoustical Society of Japan, Acoustical Society of America, and Audio Engineering Society.
• Member of the organizing committee of 13 international conferences.
• President of the Support Association for International Students of the University of Aizu (SAISUA), 2016–2020

Awards

• Best application paper presented at the 2026 IEEE Int. Conf. on Awareness Sci. and Tech. (iCAST) for “Japanese-accented English text-to-speech system” with Li Tang (Sep. 2026).
• 3rd Prize Matlab-AES student competition presented to Camilo Arévalo for “EigenHRTF” plugin. Supervised by Julián Villegas (2021).
• Aizu IT Forum Encouragement Prize presented to Wataru Sanuki for “Machi-Beacon” App. Supervised by Julián Villegas and M. Cohen (2014).
• Best Paper Prize (Student Section). B. Ryskeldiev, Julián Villegas, and M. Cohen. Exploring virtual sound environments with mobile devices. Tohoku Section Joint Conv. of Institutes of Electrical and Information Engineers (2013)
• Rotary Yoneyama Commemorative Foundation Scholarship (2008–2010)
• Third Prize literary contest Commemorating Colombia–Japan friendship (2009)
• Aizu Zaidan travel award to attend SIGMAP (2007)
• Prize for Outstanding Work. First University of Aizu Digital Photo Exhibition (2007)
• President’s Award, University of Aizu (2006)
• JASSO. Self-supported overseas student encouragement scholarship (2006)
• COLCIENCIAS (Colombia) Young Researcher Fellowship. Research project “Impact of using IT in Industrial Productivity” (2002–2003)
• CICC-AOTS Scholarship ‘Integrated Network Management’ (2002)
• Travel Grant for Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conf., Las Vegas (USA) (2000)
• Colombian Army Reserve Corps Lieutenant (Infantry) (1993)

Sep. 28, 2026