Chibuzor Okocha
PhD Student in Engineering
PhD Minor in Computer Science | University of Florida
About Me
Hi there, I am Chibuzor Okocha, a PhD student in Engineering Education with a minor in Computer Science at the University of Florida. I am a member of the UF DataStudio lab, where my research focuses on the intersection of Speech and Audio AI, reasoning in Audio Language Models, and developing robust systems for accented and multilingual speech processing.
My work aims to enhance the understanding of how both learners and educators interact with speech technologies in educational contexts. I am passionate about creating inclusive AI systems that work across multiple languages and cultures, particularly focusing on underrepresented accents and dialects.
I hold a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Florida. Before pursuing my doctoral studies, I gained valuable experience developing practical technology solutions, which now informs my research approach to bridge technology and education to improve learning outcomes.
Recent News
Excited to present my research at the TTIC Summer Workshop on Foundations of Speech and Audio Foundation Models in Chicago.
Excited to present our AfriSpeech-Dialog work at NAACL 2025.
Presented research on intercultural understanding at FIE 2024 conference.
Contributing to AfriSpeech-200 dataset with 100+ African accents.
Research Interests
Speech and Audio AI
Developing advanced AI systems for speech and audio processing applications
Audio Language Models
Researching reasoning capabilities and cognitive processes in audio language models
Accented Speech Recognition
Building robust speech recognition systems for diverse accents and dialects
Multilingual Audio AI
Creating inclusive AI systems that work across multiple languages and cultures
Recent Publications
Afrispeech-Dialog: A Benchmark Dataset for Spontaneous English Conversations in Healthcare and Beyond
NAACL 2025 | Mardhiyah Sanni, Tassallah Abdullahi, Devendra D. Kayande, Emmanuel Ayodele, Naome A. Etori, Michael S. Mollel, Moshood Yekini, Chibuzor Okocha, et al.
A comprehensive dataset for evaluating ASR and summarization on African-accented speech conversations.
AfriVox: Probing Multilingual and Accent Robustness of Speech LLMs
ACL ARR July 2025 (Under Review) | OpenReview
Open-source benchmark across 20 African languages and 100+ African English accents, evaluating multimodal speech LLMs vs traditional ASR/AST models.
Navigating Unfamiliar Waters: Enhancing Intercultural Understanding and Academic Self-Efficacy
IEEE FIE 2024 | Chibuzor J. Okocha, Jeremiah J. Blanchard, Gloria J. Kim, Mariko Adachi
Research on academic self-efficacy among computer science students in international study abroad programs.
Microelectronics Research and Global Competencies: Unpacking Research Abroad Experiences
ASEE 2024 | Chibuzor J. Okocha, Gloria J. Kim, Jae Wan Choi, Yong-Kyu Yoon
Investigating global competencies development through international research experiences.
Featured Projects
AfriSpeech-200
Pan-African speech dataset with 100+ accents and 196+ hours of audio for ASR research.
AfriSpeech-TTS
Parameter-efficient multi-accent multi-speaker text-to-speech system for African voices.
ASR Fine-Tuning with NVIDIA NeMo
GPU-accelerated ASR service tailored for Nigerian English using NVIDIA frameworks.