Heidi-Maria Lehtonen

Senior Staff Researcher @ Dolby Laboratories

About

I lead Dolby Laboratories’ research on Dialogue Enhancement technologies. In this role and in my previous role as Research Lead for Dolby’s Next Generation Audio Codec AC-4, I have gained a lot of experience on leading international teams of expert researchers and engineers. My team has a strong track record of delivering technology to products in a timely manner. As a leader I am empathetic and pragmatic, and I have a positive and growth-driven mindset. My top priorities are the wellbeing of my team and timely deliveries against goals. I make decisions based on facts and experts’ advice, and I can talk about complicated topics and situations by highlighting the relevant points. I am passionate about bringing people together to innovate future technologies. I am driven by the energy I get from helping my coworkers and team members to do their best work, seeing them growing, and honoring them for their successes. I am motivated by the responsibility I have on the research work that I lead. My goal is to continuously grow as a leader, and I am ready to take on larger responsibilities. My top strengths: 1. I am an arranger; I strive to organize the available resources and streamline processes for maximum productivity. 2. I look for consensus and seek areas of agreement. I always aim at keeping misunderstandings to a minimum and solving potential conflicts at an early stage. 3. I am a responsible person upon whom others can depend.

Country

Sweden

City

Greater Stockholm Metropolitan Area

Industry

Consumer Electronics

Skill

Swedish, Microsoft Office, Written Communication, Strategic Thinking, Problem Solving, Build Strong Relationships, Collaborative Problem Solving, Communication, Analytical Skills, Teamwork, Interpersonal Skills, Team Leadership, Leadership, Research leadership, Signal Processing, Audio Processing, Digital Signal Processing, Acoustics, Matlab, Psychoacoustics

Experience

Senior Staff Researcher

Dolby Laboratories

2018-1 - Present · 8 yrs 9 mos

Stockholm, Sweden

As a Research Lead for Dolby’s Dialogue Enhancement technologies, I lead an international team of expert researchers based in Stockholm and San Francisco. My responsibilities include stakeholder management, research roadmap planning and alignment against higher-level goals, and innovation of future audio technologies. In this role, I enjoy most working with extremely talented researchers on technology that can help millions of people who find it hard to understand dialogue when watching TV. Our AI-based Dialogue Enhancement technology can solve this problem by making dialogue clearer in TV and movie content.

Staff Researcher

Dolby Laboratories

2013-9 - 2017-12 · 4 yrs 4 mos

Stockholm, Sweden

Research Lead for Dolby AC-4 / Research project management: My primary tasks were to lead an international team of researchers across geographies and align the research roadmap with product roadmaps. I coordinated collaboration between the research team and product management and developed of audio coding tools for Dolby AC-4, and conducted subjective testing of audio quality. In this work, I learned to lead without formal authority, navigate difficult conversations, and handle situations with conflicting goals. The feedback my team received from our internal stakeholders was extremely good, and specifically, they appreciated my ability to build bridges across different parts of the organization and strive for a collaborative atmosphere.

Postdoctoral researcher

Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering

2011-1 - 2013-8 · 2 yrs 8 mos

Espoo, Uusimaa, Finland

I was working as a postdoctoral researcher in audio signal processing team at Aalto University Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics. My research interests included sound synthesis, audio processing, musical acoustics and psychoacoustics. Specifically, I was developing physically-informed synthesis methods for a next generation piano synthesizer, conducting several listening tests to find out what we actually hear in the piano sound, studying the acoustics of the piano through recordings, measurements, and signal analysis. Additionally, my research concentrated on perceptual issues in virtual analog synthesis (digital modeling of analog synthesizers). I have been teaching in several courses related to audio, acoustics, and digital signal processing.

Lecturer/Course Assistant

Aalto University/Helsinki University of Technology

2003 - 2013-8 · 10 yrs

Espoo, Uusimaa, Finland

2012, 2010 Lecturer, Sound and Voice Technology 2011 Lecturer, Course Assistant, Seminar on Acoustics 2007-2008 Lecturer, Course Assistant, Audio Signal Processing 2005-2008, 2010; Course Assistant, Signals and Systems 2003-2004 Course Assistant, Fundamentals of Physics