An abstract has been submitted to the 189th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. This will be the sixth time the conference has been jointly organised with the Acoustical Society of Japan. The paper is entitled, "Adjustment to the acoustics of a refurbished choral rehearsal room". It has been jointly written by Professor Stephen Dance with former Masters student Vincent Jee Sheng Tham. Looking forward to going back to Honolulu!
On the 6th June 2025 the Institute of Acoustics Diploma students sat their last exam. As is tradition the teaching team invited them to the local pub garden to celebrate! We wish them the best of luck with their upcoming projects and in their future careers. It was a pleasure to teach you all and thanks for the feedback!
On the 5th June 2025 at the University of Surrey the partners on the EPSRC Aurora3 project held the first development and design workshop. London South Bank University was represented by Professor Stephen Dance who along with 21 other industry and academic partners aided Professor Enzo de Sena on the design of the £3m facility for Acoustics, Audio and AI. The Variable Acoustics Room and an Anechoic Chamber were the focus of the meeting. Let's see what forms over the next year!
On the 25th April 2025 the Royal Academy of Music - London South Bank University undertook the 16th exit testing as part of their long term collaboration on sound exposure. A sample of 30+ students were tested using pure tone audiometry and otoacoustic emissions with their results compared to their entry tests taken 3.5 years earlier. We wished them all good lucky with their finals!
On the 31st March 2025 a journal paper entitled, "An investigation in the effect of acoustic quality of the student learning experience at a London Higher Education Institution". The articles lead author was LSBU PhD student Rodrigo Sanchez Pizani and his team at King's College London. The paper can be found here and was published by SSRN.
On the 28th March 2025 at the Mercure Hotel, Manchester the 3rd Art of Being an Acoustician took place organised by Professor Stephen Dance with the support of UKAN. Again the meeting was split into three sessions (Senior, Current and Early Career) members experiences in acoustics. Thanks to Keith Attenborough, Rupert Taylor, David Waddington, Jo Webb, Jack Harvie-Clark, Volkan Akun, Simone Graetzer and Zachary Simcox for their talks. We hope all the delegates enjoyed discussing their experience in acoustics!
On the 27th March 2025 at the Mercure Hotel in Manchester the 21st Art of Being a Consultant was held. Once again organised by the IOA Early Career Group (this year Zac Simcox) the event had 30 delegates. All aspects of consultancy were discussed before Prof Stephen Dance introduced the Art of Being an Acoustician. Adjournment to the bar allowed the love of acoustics to shine through over a drink. This was followed by ten people going for a steak dinner!
On the 19th March 2025 the UKAN (UK Acoustics Network) celebrated 8 years of funding. The network brought together academics across the country who might have previously working in isolation. Industry supported the idea and EPSRC paid twice! Prof Stephen Dance raised issues around policy and standards and was the Health and Wellbeing champion. UKAN will continue as a virtual network and will be incorporated into the Institute of Acoustics as part of legacy planning. Many thanks to everybody who helped!
A journal article, "Noise exposure and auditory risk from air filled balloon bursts", has been recently published in Applied Acoustics. The investigation determines for the first time the noise exposure and risk to hearing from the impulse noise generated by the burst of air-filled latex balloons. It has been authored by Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina and co-authored by LSBU MSc Acoustics current student Antonella Bevilacqua and former student Pedro Vazquez-Barrera.
The novel study reports concerning noise exposure and risk to hearing from balloon bursts. It also provides for the first time guidance on safe procedures during acoustic measurements or in leisure activities. It is expected that the novel findings, and insights will raise awareness, change attitudes and practices of acoustic practitioners and general lay users to reduce the risk of hearing damage and aid professionals to comply with applicable occupational health and safety regulations.
On the 16th January 2025 an article was published in the Institution of Civil Engineering's Proceeding on Engineering History and Heritage. The article authored by Dr Haydar Aygun et al was entitled, "Pixel matching technique for restoration of Mediterranean historic buildings". It was a team effort!
