About Jiawen...

Hailing from Shanghai, China, Jiawen Mao is a spatial audio researcher, recording engineer, audio programmer, and sound designer/composer based in Ann Arbor, MI. Her passion for physics, engineering, and music defines her research and creative approach: powering spatial and immersive audio experiences with smart technological designs.

Prior to joining the Department of Performing Arts Technology at UMichigan as a PhD student in 2024, Jiawen was a graduate from the Master's program in Music Technology at NYU Steinhardt (23') and earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Materials Science / Minor in Musical Engineering and Technology at Tsinghua University (20').  

Jiawen's academic and professional interests are focused on applications of Ambisonic and binaural audio to music production in Extended Reality (XR), including HOA audio capture and production, spherical harmonics analysis and synthesis, and sound field plugin design —— an example of which is her Master's thesis, Spheringer: A Choir Sample Library and Sampler Pipeline Experiment in FOA. She is further curious about exploring spatial audio dataset design and perceptual feature engineering for AI-based sound field synthesis, filter design, machine listening, and generative room impulse responses.

In addition to her spatial and immersive audio research, Jiawen is trained in the Tonmeister practices under multiple Grammy award-winning recording engineers and researchers. Focusing on classical, jazz, and world music ensembles, Jiawen is experienced in immersive microphone techniques, post-production mixing for various consumer formats including Dolby Atmos and binaural, and creative representations in VR environments.

A classical music enthusiast and amateur composer addicted to the symphonic utilization of practically any sound, Jiawen also performs regularly as a choral soprano and draws research inspirations from her experiences on the other end of the microphones. Her spare time is mainly divided between cooking on a whim, battling cat and coffee withdrawal, and ranting about terrific/terrible music choices in figure skating, her favorite sport.

She is actively seeking research projects and creative opportunities in sound recording, plugin design, and sound design/ADR. Please contact for further information.