Lorenzo Turicchia

Lorenzo Turicchia’s main research interests are in nonlinear signal processing, machine learning, and bioelectronics. In 2002 he joined the Analog Circuits and Biological Systems group at MIT.

His work has included research on cochlear implants (bionic ears) for the hearing impaired, visual prostheses for the blind, speech prostheses for individuals with severe communication disabilities, automatic speech recognition in noise, and wearable medical devices.

He is currently working on (1) robust techniques for the recognition of speech, speaker, and language in noisy environments; (2) bioelectronics for wearable and implantable medical devices; and (3) neural decoding techniques for neural prosthetic devices for the paralyzed. He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine (T-ITB) and serves on the program committees of several technical conferences.

Selected Publications

1. B. I. Rapoport, L. Turicchia, W. Wattanapanitch, T. J. Davidson, R. Sarpeshkar, “Efficient Universal Computing Architectures for Decoding Neural Activity,” submitted for publication.

2. R. Danial, S. S. Woo, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, "Analog Transistor Models of Bacterial Genetic Circuits," to appear in the Proceedings of 2011 IEEE Symposium on Biological Circuits and Systems (BioCAS), November 2011.

3. K. H. Wee, L. Turicchia and R. Sarpeshkar, “An Articulatory Silicon Vocal Tract for Speech and Hearing Prostheses,” IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, Invited Paper (4 out of 83 submissions), Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 339-346, 2011. doi:10.1109/TBCAS.2011.2159858

4. L. Turicchia and G. Li, “Sensing and Computing in Wearable Robots,” Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, Guest Editorial, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 503-504, July 2011. doi: 10.1109/TITB.2011.2160245

5. L. Turicchia, B. Do Valle, J. Bohorquez, W. Sanchez, V. Misra, L. Fay, M. Tavakoli, and R. Sarpeshkar, “Ultra Low Power Electronics for Cardiac Monitoring,” Invited Paper, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I. Vol. 57, No. 9, pp. 2279-2290, 2010. doi:10.1109/TCSI.2010.2071610

6. K. H. Wee, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “Speech-coding strategies for speech prostheses,” Program No. D.18, Brain-Machine Interface, 2010 Neuroscience Meeting, San Diego, CA, Society for Neuroscience, 2010.

7. B. I. Rapoport, W. Wattanapanitch, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “Implantable neural decoding systems,” Program No. D.18, Brain-Machine Interface, 2010 Neuroscience Meeting, San Diego, CA, Society for Neuroscience, 2010.

8. W. Wattanapanitch, D. Kumar, B. Do Valle, L. Turicchia, B. I. Rapoport, S. K. Arfin, S. Mandal, E. Hwang, R. A. Andersen, R. Sarpeshkar, “An ultra-low-power 32-channel wireless neural recording interface,” Program No. D.18, Brain-Machine Interface, 2010 Neuroscience Meeting, San Diego, CA, Society for Neuroscience, 2010.

9. K. H. Wee, L. Turicchia, R. Sarpeshkar, “A Speech Locked Loop for Cochlear Implants and Speech Prostheses,” Proceedings of the IEEE 3rd International Symposium on Applied Sciences in Biomedical and Communication Technologies (ISABEL 2010), Rome, Italy, November 7-10, 2010. doi:10.1109/ISABEL.2010.5702864

10. K. H. Wee, L. Turicchia, R. Sarpeshkar, “An Articulatory Speech-Prosthesis System,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Body Sensor Networks (BSN 2010), pp. 133-138, 7-9 June 2010. doi:10.1109/BSN.2010.29

11. S. Mandal, L. Turicchia, and Rahul Sarpeshkar, “A Low-Power Battery-Free Tag for Body Sensor Networks,” IEEE Pervasive Computing, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 71-77, Jan.-Mar. 2010. doi:10.1109/MPRV.2010.1

12. M. Tavakoli, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “An Ultra-Low-Power Pulse Oximeter Implemented with an Energy-Efficient Transimpedance Amplifier,” IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 27-38, Feb. 2010. doi:10.1109/TBCAS.2009.2033035 (Second top accessed article in the February 2010 IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems.)

13. K. H. Wee, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar “Biologically inspired silicon vocal tract,” Invited Paper, SPIE Newsroom, International Society for Optics and Photonics, 3 Feb. 2010. doi: 10.1117/2.1201001.1807 (Second most popular article in the February 2010 SPIE Newsroom.)

14. L. Turicchia, S. Mandal, M. Tavakoli, L. Fay, V. Misra, J. Bohorquez, W. Sanchez, and R. Sarpeshkar, “Ultra-Low-Power Electronics for Non-invasive Medical Monitoring,” Invited Paper, Proceedings of the IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC 2009), pp. 85-92, San Jose, California, USA, September 13-16, 2009. doi:10.1109/CICC.2009.5280892 (Rated among the highest quality papers by the IEEE CICC 2009 review panel.)

15. Z. Al Bawab, L. Turicchia, R. M. Stern, and B. Raj, “Deriving Vocal Tract Shapes From ElectroMagnetic Articulograph Data Via Geometric Adaptation and Matching,” Proceedings of Interspeech 2009, Brighton, U.K., September 6-10, 2009.

16. S. Mandal, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “A Battery-Free Tag for Wireless Monitoring of Heart Sounds,” Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Wearable and Implantable Body Sensor Networks (BSN 2009), pp. 201-206, Berkeley, CA, USA, June 2009. doi:10.1109/BSN.2009.11

17. K. H. Wee, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “An Analog Bionic Vocal Tract,” Proceedings of the IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference (BioCAS 2008), pp. 281-284, Baltimore, MD, USA, 2008. doi:10.1109/BIOCAS.2008.4696929

18. J. Bohorquez, W. Sanchez, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “An Integrated-Circuit Switched-Capacitor Model and Implementation of the Heart,” Invited Paper, Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Applied Sciences in Biomedical and Communication Technologies (ISABEL), Aalborg, Denmark, 2008. doi:10.1109/ISABEL.2008.4712624

19. L. Turicchia, M. O’Halloran, D. P. Kumar, and R. Sarpeshkar, “A Low-Power Imager and Compression Algorithms for a Brain-Machine Visual Prosthesis for the Blind,” Invited Paper, Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol. 7035, pp. 703510-1:703510-13, San Diego, CA, USA, 2008. doi:10.1117/12.797211

20. K. H. Wee, L. Turicchia and R. Sarpeshkar, “An Analog Integrated-Circuit Vocal Tract,” IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 316 - 327, 2008. doi:10.1109/TBCAS.2008.2005296

21. G. Rota, L. Turicchia, R. Veitc, M. Guazzellia, N. Birbaumer, and G. Dogil, “Perceptual learning of speech processed by a cochlear implant simulator—An fMRI investigation,” International Journal of Psychophysiology, Vol. 69, No. 3, pp. 225-226, 2008.

22. B. Raj, L. Turicchia, B. Schmidt-Nielsen, and R. Sarpeshkar, “An FFT-Based Companding Front End for Noise-Robust Automatic Speech Recognition,” EURASIP Journal on Audio, Speech, and Music Processing, Vol. 2007, Article ID 65420, 13 pages, 2007. doi:10.1155/2007/65420

23. A. Oxenham, A. Simonson, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “Evaluation of Companding-Based Spectral Enhancement Using Simulated Cochlear-Implant Processing,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 121, No. 3, pp. 1709-1716, 2007. doi:10.1121/1.2434757

24. A. Simonson, A. Oxenham, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “Evaluation of companding-based spectral enhancement using simulated cochlear-implant processing,” American Auditory Society Meeting (AAS2006), Scottsdale, AZ, USA, March 2006.

25. L. Turicchia and R. Sarpeshkar, “A Bio-Inspired Companding Strategy for Spectral Enhancement,” IEEE Transactions on Speech and Audio Processing, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 243-253, 2005. doi:10.1109/TSA.2004.841044

26. R. Sarpeshkar, C. Salthouse, J.J. Sit, M. Baker, S. Zhak, T. Lu, L. Turicchia, and S. Balster, “An Ultra-Low-Power Programmable Analog Bionic Ear Processor,” IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering , Vol. 52, No. 4, pp. 711-727, 2005. doi:10.1109/TBME.2005.844043

27. R. Sarpeshkar, M. Baker, C. Salthouse, J.J. Sit, L. Turicchia, and S. Zhak, “An Analog Bionic Ear Processor with Zero-Crossing Detection,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC'05), San Francisco, CA, USA, February 2005.

28. J. Guiness, B. Raj, B. Nielsen, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “A Companding Front End for Noise-Robust Automatic Speech Recognition,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP’05), pp. 249-252, Philadelphia, PA, USA, March 2005. (Rated among the top papers in its category by the IEEE Signal Processing Society.)

29. Loizou, P., K. Kasturi, L. Turicchia, R. Sarpeshkar, M. Dorman, and T. Spahr, “Evaluation of the Companding and Other Strategies for Noise Reduction in Cochlear Implants,” Proceedings of the 2005 Conference on Implantable Auditory Prostheses, Pacific Grove, CA, USA, 2005.

30. L. Turicchia and R. Sarhpeshkar, “The Silicon Cochlea: from Biology to Bionics,” The Biophysics of the Cochlea: Molecules to Models, World Scientific, New Jersey, USA, 2003.

31. M. Balduzzo, F. Ferro Milone, T.A. Minelli, I. Pittaro-Cadore, and L. Turicchia, “Mathematical Phenomenology of Neural Stimulation by Periodic Fields,” Nonlinear Dynamics Psychol Life Sci., Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 115-137, 2003.

32. R. Nobili, A. Vetešník, L. Turicchia, and F. Mammano, “Otoacoustic emissions from residual oscillations of the cochlear basilar membrane in a human ear model,” J Assoc Res Otolaryngol., Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 478-494, 2003.

33. R. Nobili, A. Vetešník, L. Turicchia, and F. Mammano, “Otoacoustic emissions simulated in the time-domain by a hydrodynamic model of the human cochlea,” The Biophysics of the Cochlea: Molecules to Models, World Scientific, New Jersey, USA, 2003.

34. L. Turicchia, G. Depoli, G.A. Mian, and R. Nobili, “Audio analysis by a physiological auditory model,” Proceedings of the COST G-6 Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFX-00), December 2000.

35. M. Balduzzo, T.A. Minelli, and L. Turicchia, “Signal Analysis and Simulation of the EEG Activity,” International Journal of Chaos Theory and Applications, Vol. 4, No. 7, pp. 7-14, 1999.

36. M. Balduzzo, F. Ferro Milone, T.A. Minelli, and L. Turicchia, “Neuron Synchronisation Mathematical Phenomenology,” 9-th International Conference of The Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Science, Berkeley, CA, July 1999, SPTCLS Newsletters, Vol. 6, No. 4, p.2, July 1999.

37. T.A. Minelli and L. Turicchia, “Progressive Coherence Patterns for Electroencephalographic phenomenology,” Nonlinear Dynamics Psychol Life Sci., Vol. 3, No. 2. pp. 129-142, 1999.

38. F. Ferro Milone, T.A. Minelli, and L. Turicchia, “Neuron Synchronization and Human EEG Phenomenology Simulation,” Nonlinear Dynamics Psychol Life Sci., Vol. 2, No. 21, pp. 21-33, 1998.

39. C. Gabrieli, F. Ferro Milone, G. Ferro Milone, T.A Minelli, and L. Turicchia, “From the Mathematical Anatomy to the Mathematical Physiology of Brain Co-operative Phenomena,” Proceedings of the International Conference Chaos, Fractals & Models, F. Marsella and G. Salvadori eds. pp.406-410, Italian University Press, 1998.

40. P. Amodio, T.A. Minelli, A. Pesavento, and L. Turicchia, “Rumore browniano frazionario nell'EEG dell'encefalopatia epatica,” Atti del XIV Congresso della Società Italiana di Biofisica Pura e Applicata, CNR, Genova, IT, p. 100, September 1998.

41. F. Ferro Milone, G. Ferro Milone, T.A Minelli, L. Turicchia, and R. Zanini, “The Windowed Spectral Coherence and the Reference Problem,” I Mediterranean Neuroscience Conference, Montpellier, September 1997.

42. F. Ferro Milone, T.A. Minelli, and L. Turicchia, “Nonlinear Analysis and Simulation of the EEG Time Series,” Proceedings of the 27 European Mathematical Psychology Group, 1996.

43. F. Ferro Milone, T.A. Minelli, and L. Turicchia, “A Phenomenological Model of the Brain Rhythm Generation,” Third European Congress on Systems Science, Edizioni Kappa, Rome, IT, pp. 787-791, 1996.

44. T.A. Minelli and L. Turicchia, “Nonlinear Simulation of the Electrocortical Activity,” Nonlinear Physics: theory and experiment (Nature, Structure and Properties of Nonlinear Phenomena), World Scientific, New Jersey, USA, pp. 551-553, 1996.

Intellectual Property

1. L. Turicchia and R. Sarpeshkar, “System and Method for Spectral Enhancement Employing Compression and Expansion,” United States Patent 7787640, published August 31, 2010. US-7787640

2. L. Turicchia, S. Mandal, and R. Sarpeshkar, “A Wearable System for Monitoring Physiological Signals,” U.S. Patent Application filed February 4, 2010, published August 5, 2010. U.S. Utility Application Serial No. 12/700,214. United States Patent Application No. US-2010-0198094-A1.

3. R. Sarpeshkar, L. Turicchia, and S. Mandal, “Advanced Coding Strategies for Visual Prostheses,” International Patent Application PCT/US2009/053102 (WO/2010/017448A1), filed August 7, 2009, published February 11, 2010.

4. B. Ramakrishnan, B. Schmidt-Nielsen, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “Method and System for FFT-Based Companding for Automatic Speech Recognition,” United States Patent 7672842, published March 3, 2010. US-7672842

5. R. Sarpeshkar, L. Turicchia, and S. Mandal, “Advanced Coding Strategies for Visual Prostheses,” U.S. Patent Application filed August 7, 2009, published February 11, 2010. US-2010-0036457

6. L. Turicchia, S. Mandal, and R. Sarpeshkar, “A Wearable System for Monitoring Physiological Signals,” U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/149,801, filed on February 4, 2009.

7. R. Sarpeshkar and L. Turicchia, “Cardiovascular Signal Processing Apparatus and Method Employing Feedback,” U.S. Provisional Patent Application, filed September 2008.

8. K. H. Wee, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “Speech Processing Apparatus and Method Employing Feedback,” U.S. Patent Application filed August 15, 2008.

9. K. H. Wee, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “Speech Processing Apparatus and Method Employing Feedback,” International Patent Application PCT/US08/73240 (WO/2009/023807), filed August 18, 2008, published February 19, 2009.

10. B. Ramakrishnan, B. Schmidt-Nielsen, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, “Method and System for FFT-Based Companding for Automatic Speech Recognition,” U.S. Patent Application Number 11/493,196, published January 31, 2008. US-2008-0027708-A1

11. L. Turicchia and R. Sarpeshkar, “System and Method for Spectral Enhancement Employing Compression and Expansion,” U.S. Patent Application 10/830,561, published December 16, 2004. US-2004-0252850-A1

12. L. Turicchia and R. Sarpeshkar, “System and Method for Spectral Enhancement Employing Compression and Expansion,” International Patent Application PCT/US2004/012674 (WO/2004/097799), published November 11, 2004.

13. L. Turicchia and R. Sarpeshkar, “System and Method for Spectral Enhancement Employing Compression and Expansion,” European Patent Application No. 1618559, published January 25, 2006. EP-2004-0760369

14. R. Sarpeshkar and L. Turicchia, “System and Method for Distributed Gain Control,” U.S. Patent No. 7,415,118, published August 19, 2008. US-7,415,118B2

15. R. Sarpeshkar and L. Turicchia, “System and Method for Distributed Gain Control,” U.S. Patent Application No. 10/625,360, published July 15, 2004. US-2004-0136545-A1

16. R. Sarpeshkar and L. Turicchia, “System and Method for Distributed Gain Control for Spectrum Enhancement,” International Patent Application No. PCT/US2003/022795 (WO/2004/010417), published January 29, 2004.

17. R. Sarpeshkar and L. Turicchia, “System and Method for Distributed Gain Control for Spectrum Enhancement,” European Patent Application No. 1529281, published November 29, 2006. EP-2003-0765863

Selected media coverage of four projects

1. Anne Eisenberg, “WHAT'S NEXT; Analog Over Digital? For a Better Ear Implant, Yes,” The New York Times, May 29, 2003.

2. Megan Vandre, “Breaking Boundaries,” Technology Review, May 2003.

3. Mark LaPedus, “MIT debuts 'bionic ear processor' for hearing impaired,” EE Times, February 8, 2005.

4. Piero Angela, “The Bionic Man,” Superquark, Radiotelevisione Italiana RAI-1 (Italian National Public Television), broadcast on air July 14, 2005.

5. Bill Schweber, “Partitioning: blast from the past,” EE Times, March 3, 2008.

6. Bill Schweber, “It's a slow, low-res world after all,” EE Times, March 31, 2008.

7. “L’uomo bionico ai giorni nostri: dalla fantascienza alla realtà,” Messaggero Veneto, February 24, 2010.

8. “L’uomo bionico parte dall’orecchio ‘Matrix’ è realtà,” Il Piccolo di Trieste, February 25, 2011.

1. “Reports highlight recent research from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S,” Biotech Business Week, May 21, 2007.

2. “Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports research in speech,” Science Letter, April 17, 2007.

3. “Massachusetts Inventors Develop Spectrum Enhancement System,” US Fed News, August 25, 2008.

4. “U.S. Patents Awarded to Inventors in Massachusetts,” Targeted News Service, August 25, 2008.

5. Professor Sarpeshkar talks about the group's research “2011 Frontiers of Engineering: Ultra Low Power Biomedical and Bio-inspired Systems,” GoogleTechTalks, Mountain View, CA, September 19, 2011.

1. Keng Hoong Wee, Lorenzo Turicchia, and Rahul Sarpeshkar, “Biologically inspired silicon vocal tract,” SPIE Newsroom, International Society for Optics and Photonics, 3 Feb. 2010.

2. Sunny Bains, “Brains and Machines: A silicon vocal tract,” EE Times, April 16, 2010.

1. Larry Hardesty, “Mimicking cells with transistors. Analog — rather than digital — circuits could enable models of biological systems that are more efficient, more accurate and easier to build,” MIT News Office, September 28, 2011.

2. “Sarpeshkar & team show why analog is preferable to digital in mimicing cell behavior,” MIT EECS, September 28, 2011.

3. “Mimicking cells with transistors,” R&D Magazine, September 28, 2011.

4. Ishan Topre, “‘Chemistry = Electronics’ At Atomic Level?,” CrazyEngineers Technologies, September 30, 2011.