The starting point of doctoral training

Current Methods in Voice Communication Sciences
9–12 February 2026 · Herzberg Seminar House & Conference Center (Switzerland)
Host institution: University of Zurich

The VoCS Winter School is the flagship entry point to the consortium’s doctoral programme

 Over four intensive days, VoCS doctoral candidates begin their training with an immersive introduction to how human identity is encoded, perceived, and synthesized through the voice. The curriculum spans behavioural, cognitive, and computational approaches and combines lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on sessions. A complementary set of transversal-skills modules strengthens ethical, legal, and methodological practice in contemporary research.

Highlights from our Winter School experience.

What participants gain

  • A shared foundation in voice acoustics, perception study design, speaker recognition, and audio-deepfake methods.
  • Practical experience with tools and workflows used across labs and industry partners.
  • A professional network linking doctoral candidates, principal investigators, and invited experts across the VoCS consortium.

Scientific modules — topics & speakers

  • Voice Acoustics — Volker Dellwo, Elisa Pellegrino, Alessandro De Luca (University of Zurich); Uwe Reichel (Audeering)
  • Voice Perception: Study Design — Attila Andics (Eötvös Loránd University)
  • Automatic Speaker Recognition — Shrikanth Madikeri Raghunathan (University of Zurich)
  • Audio Deepfake: Production & Detection — Anil Alexander, Finnian Kelly (Oxford Wave Research)

Transversal-skills modules

  • Research Integrity & Ethics — Khiet P. Truong (University of Twente); Attila Andics (Eötvös Loránd University)
  • Privacy & Personal Data, Open Access, FAIR Data — Melanie Röthlisberger (University of Zurich)
  • Intellectual Property: Generation & Protection — Manuel Segovia Martinez (Origenes)

Organisers & contact

  • Organisers: Elisa Pellegrino and Volker Dellwo
  • Information & quieries: Elisa Pellegrino — elisa.pellegrino@uzh.ch

Program

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About VOCS ©2024 The project has been funded by the European Union under GA 101168998. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only do not necessariyl reflect those of the European Union nor the European Reserch Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be hed responsible for them.