Case Study: Sapienza University of Rome halves algorithm development time and boosts student engagement with MathWorks MATLAB and Audio System Toolbox

Sapienza Università di Roma Students Learn Signal Processing by Developing Real-Time Audio Processing Applications

Sapienza University of Rome faced a teaching challenge in its multimedia signal processing course: students struggled with real-time implementation and understanding of audio-processing algorithms when using C++ and were constrained by lab-only access. To address this, the university adopted MathWorks tools—primarily MATLAB and Audio System Toolbox—to let students implement, test, and hear algorithms more easily and work on projects outside the lab.

MathWorks provided a campus-wide MATLAB license and Audio System Toolbox so students could progress from offline to online to real-time development (using audioDeviceReader/audioDeviceWriter and generating VST plugins for DAWs). The solution halved algorithm development time, eliminated lab-time limitations by enabling work on personal computers, and significantly increased student engagement—measurable impacts highlighted by a 50% reduction in development time.

Sapienza University of Rome

Michele Scarpiniti

Researcher and Lecturer