Destinations of MSc Students 2011/12

One year on for the 8 MSc students of 2011/12: Lucia works for Temple Acoustics, Graham is with Adnitt Acoustics, Shane is singing and working for a recording studio, Alex is starting his PhD with the Fraunhofer Institute, Rob is with Sandy Brown still, Rob is still with TBA Associates, Hassan disappeared and Rolins is back in India working at an architectural practice. 

Newman Medalists Celebrate

A Christmas get together for a couple of ex Masters students, Paul Herwin and Nick Durup. They each won the Newman Medal, 2010 and 2012. Paul's dissertation based paper on straw bale constructions will be presented a the ICA in Montreal June 2013.

A Year in Acoustics 2012

Thanks for all your support over 2012. We won three key awards: Peter Mapp was the recipient of the International Electrotechnical Commission's 1906 Founders award,  Dr Dance received the inaugural LSBU Enterprise award, and three MSc students were awarded Newman medals: Alba Losada, Paul Herwin and Graham Shaw. Both Nicola Shiers and Luis Gomez submitted and successfully defended their doctoral thesis. International links were initiated with RWTH Aachen University, Politecico of Turin and Federal University of Minas Gerais. Links with the Institute of Acoustics were considerably strengthened with our own Professor Bridget Shield becoming President, the Group hosted four IoA meetings at LSBU: ETSU-R-97, National Planning Policy Framework, the Annual General Meeting, Music to your Ears seminar, and our students gave a London Branch meeting address. Conferences were attended in Iceland, Birmingham, Brighton, Istanbul, Hong Kong and Nantes. New research projects were undertaken with Adande and New Brunswick. We are looking forward to 2013 with a trip to Montreal for the joint ICA/ASA/CAS meeting. Best wishes for the New Year

Peter Mapp presents at Reproduced Sound

On 15th November 2012, PhD candidate Peter Mapp gave a highly informative and entertaining presentation to the Institute of Acoustics Reproduced Sound Conference in Brighton. The paper was entitled, "Can sound systems really help overcome poor or inappropriate acoustics?". The students really enjoyed some light relief after a hard day!

Acoustics Group's Christmas Party 2012

On the 3rd December 2012, the Acoustics Group has its annual Christmas party. This year we were joined by Brad Backus, Ruth Hansford, Ken Marriott along with part time lecturers Bob Peter and Salih Hassan. The event was held at the Caprini Restaurant in Waterloo. We did miss the company of Ben though!

Abstracts submitted for 20th ICSV

On the 1st December 2012, an abstract was submitted to the 20th International Congress for Sound and Vibration to be held in Bangkok Thailand. The first paper is entitled, "The effects of air humidity and temperature variations in the acoustic design of voice alarm systems on Underground platforms". This will be presented by Dr Luis Gomez. The second paper, "Noise reduction in commercial refrigerators - A practical approach" will be presented by Dr Cat Marques of Adande. Wish I was going!

First Opera Singing Vocal Tests

On 29th November 2012 at the Royal Academy of Music the first vocal stress test of opera singers was undertaken using the KayPentax Ambulation Phonation Monitor. It was a beautiful experience thanks to Sarah :)

A Personal Tour of the Royal Opera House

On the 23rd November 2012 the Royal Opera House kindly invited the Acoustics Group to visit. Matt Downes personally gave the Masters students a tour around the entire building. We then picked up the acoustic screens the orchestra had been using in the pit. This is when many pairs of hands made light work, but only after eating some crepes in Covent Garden!

Lorenzo presents at Reproduced Sound

At Reproduced Sound early on Friday 16th November PhD student Lorenzo Morales presented his paper entitled, " Preliminary validation of the revised STI male scale for the English language". This was the first of two papers he had contributed to, but lucky Glen Leembruggen presented the follow up paper! There papers were very well received.

Abstracts submitted to ICA in Montreal

Three abstracts have been submitted to the International Congress on Acoustics to be held in Montreal, Canada in June 2013. The first abstract entitled, "Straw bale sound insulation- Blowing away the chaff", will be presented by Dr Stephen Dance. The second abstract is on, "Vocal stress and acoustics in schools", and will be presented by Nick Durup. The final abstract is entitled, "Urban wind turbines- a Pilot Study", the paper will be presented by Ben Dymock. As it happens the F1 Grand Prix is also going on at the same time!

Newman Medalist - Graham Shaw

On the 19th November 2012, MSc student Graham Shaw was awarded the Newman Medal from the Acoustical Society of America. His dissertation was entitled, "The Schultz Equation - As an alternative to measuring the reverberation time in small furnished rooms". The Bradford Newman medal is for excellence in the study of acoustics and its application in architecture. Well done Graham!

Students at IoA Reproduced Sound conference

On the 15-16 November 2012 the Acoustics Group had a large presence at the Institute of Acoustics Reproduced Sound conference in Brighton. In attendance were 6 Masters students, 3 PhD students (Ben Dymock, Peter Mapp and Lorenzo Morales) and 3 academics - Prof Shield, Dr Gomez and Dr Dance. Brighton in November wasn't too bad!

Italian Interns and Henry Wood Hall

On the 12th November Chiara Ehrhardt came to visit our laboratory to organise an internship for Spring 2013. Chiara and Daniela Falzone plan on joining the Acoustics Group for a few months from the Politecico of Turin working with Arianna Astolfi. Arrangement have been made to visit and measure the acoustics of Henry Wood Hall on 22nd March 2013 and to work with the Royal Academy of Music until end of the summer term.Looking forward to learning some Italian words!

On the 27th November 2012, the Building Research Establishment is hosting a 1 day meeting organised by the Institute of Acoustics Measurement Group. PhD student Peter Mapp will be presenting his finding on, "Acoustic Apps and Measurements using iPhone and iPads". This continues the Acoustics Group long association with consumer electronics and inexpensive measurement systems.

Celebration of a 120 years

London South Bank University is celebrating 120 years! On the 8th November 2012 the Department of Urban Engineering organised it's own contribution to the celebrations with the President of the Institute of Civil Engineers and CIBSE ex-President Graham Manly. Many old faces turned up amongst a number of our more recent students, although we did have two who graduated in 1952 from the National College of Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering at Borough Polytechnic. 

Ken Marriott Lecture Series

Over the course of October 2012, Acoustic Consultant Ken Marriott has kindly given a lecture series to the MSc students. Ken covered industrial process acoustics with emphasis on oil platform and processing plants. He cleverly integrated acoustics into mechanical services demonstrating what can go wrong. Obviously, we I had to show by taking Ken for a drink!

Welcome to the club - Dr Luis

Luis Gomez Agustina pass his PhD defence on the 31st October 2012. The research thesis was entitled, "Design and optimisation of voice alarm systems for underground stations". Dr Bob Peters and Professor John Turner were impressed by the demonstration and the impact of the research. Well done Luis!

Acoustics Group in Iceland

The Acoustics Group was represented at a conference on The damaging effects of noise on hearing, voice and well-being in children’s learning environment at the National University Hospital of Iceland.

Professor Bridget Shield presented two papers on school acoustics including Nick Durup giving an update on his current research. The conference was well attended with an international range of speakers from the Speech Therapy, Phoniatric and Acoustics fields and appeared on Icelandic TV.

The visit included a concert at the Harpa concert hall in Reykjavik where the acoustics complemented the music of the Iceland Symphony orchestra impressively! 

Students off to Reproduced Sound, Brighton

Ten MSc and PhD students from the Acoustics Group are off to support fellow student and presenter Lorenzo Morales at the Institute of Acoustic's Reproduced Sound Conference in Brighton. Luxury accommodation at the local Travelodge has been arranged. Should be fun!

Public Address Systems Thesis Submitted

PhD Candidate Luis Gomez has finished his doctoral thesis entitled, "The design and optimisation of voice alarm systems for Underground Stations". His viva will be this autumn and we wish him luck!

300 more Royal Academy Students Tested

The Acoustics Group has just completed their 6th year of audiometric tests for the Royal Academy of Music. We now have measured 2000 classical musicians! Many thanks to the team

New 6 channel Svantek Vibration Meter

A new 6 channel Svantek vibration meter has been purchased for the urban wind turbine research project. This equipment will allow the simultaneous tri-axial vibrations to be monitored above and below the mounting systems. The data will be compared to anemometry to calculate dynamic load on the structure and urban wind turbines.

ISVR Advanced Course on Noise Control

On the 13th and 14th September 2012, ISVR held their Advanced Course on Noise Control. For the 10th year Dr Stephen Dance presented his work on room acoustic simulation - I promised Phil Joseph it had changed just a little bit over the course dinner!

Royal Academy of Music Seminars

For the 6th year the Acoustics Group gave a series of acoustics lecturers to the students of the Royal Academy of Music, 5-6th September 2012. The talks were targeted towards the 4 main instrument groups to raise awareness of the music induced hearing loss. Now all we have to do is hearing tests for all 330 new students!

Peter Mapp receives British Standard Institute Award

On the 4th September 2012, PhD student Peter Mapp was nominated and awarded the prestigious IEC 1906 Award in recognition of his excellent contribution to for outstanding contribution to the Technical Sub Committee responsible for Speech Intelligibility standards, the subject of his doctoral research. He will receive the award on 1st November at the Institute of Engineering and Technology. Well done Peter!

Norsonic Equipment Recalibrated

Over the summer 4 class 1 microphones have been recalibrated for our Norsonic instruments by Campbell Associates. This will allow student projects to meet the required standards for the next 2 years!

Proven 5 Urban Wind Turbine Commissioned

On the 22nd August 2012 the Proven 6kW wind turbine was commissioned. The turbine providing electrical power for London South Bank University. We hope to use this as a student test bed for a number of subjects - energy engineering, acoustics and computational fluid dynamics.

Paul Herwin wins American Newman Medal

On the 23rd August 2012, MSc Student Paul Herwin was awarded the Newman Medal from the Acoustical Society of America. The dissertation was entitled, "Straw bale sound insulation - Blowing away the Chaff". Well done Paul!

LPO Audiometric Testing

Three years have gone by, so the musicians of the LPO are back for more hearing tests. This time though they are off to record the Hobbit sound track at Abbey Road.

Consultation on ETSU-R-97 at LSBU

On the 12th September 2012, London South Bank University will hold a one day workshop on ETSR-R-97 entitled, "A good practice guide to the application of ETSU-R-97 to wind turbine noise assessment". The meeting will be held in CEREB on Keyworth Street.

Acoustic Input for New Brunswick Scientific

On 15th August 2012, it was agreed with New Brunswick Scientific would work with the Acoustics Group. A KTP refrigeration project would incorporate our acoustic input to further improve their product ranges.

ISVR Advanced Course on Noise Control

On the 13-14th September 2012 Dr Stephen Dance will be giving his 20th annual lecture to the students on the Advanced Course in Noise Control at ISVR, University of Southampton. Perhaps he will receive a long service medal?

Ambulatory Phonation Monitor has arrived

On the 26th July 2012, the KayPentax ambulatory phonation monitor arrived from the USA. It will be used by Nick Durup as part of his PhD study on, "an investigation into the effect of acoustics on vocal strain of teachers". Nick is not the hand model though!

Adande get a Class 1 XL2 meter

On the 25th July 2012, Adande received their new Class 1 sound level meter and calibrator. The NTI XL2 Real Time Analyser will be used to diagnose refrigeration units as part of a research project to improve the sound quality of the compressor and condenser fans.

Acoustics Group Summer Party 2012

On the 24th July 2012, the Acoustic Group members - lecturers, staff, researchers, gathered in the sunshine for a drink or two before the start of the Olympics. We were just missing Peter Mapp and Nicky Shiers - who were preparing for the Olympics!

Adande Noise Team

On the 24th July 2012, the full Adande Refrigeration noise team met up in Lowestoft. The team has built and commissioned an acoustic facility in the factory.

Graduation 2012

On the 23rd July 2012, the Part-time MSc Acoustics students attended the Award Ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall. Unfortunately, Dr Dance was busy chasing the BEng with prizes! Happily the sun shone on all of us.

New Measurement Microphone Purchased

A new omni-directional class 2 measurement microphone was purchased, MicW i436, so that iPhone apps could more accurately measure sound fields. We think it will work best with iPhone Edge and iPhone 3. It came about through research undertaken as part of cheap acoustics and works well with our 1/4" sound calibrator.

Blog Update and Overhaul

The Acoustics Group blog has been overhauled to include PhD dissertations, PhD student profiles, Research Fellow profiles, Lecturer profiles and MSc dissertation titles. So now everybody can benefit from the research.

Noise diagnostics on the Adande refrigerator

On the 4-6th July 2012 an Adande Refrigerator was setup in the anechoic chamber at London South Bank University. Noise and vibration diagnostics were undertaken with the help of Dr Cat! Dr Cat is our newest team member having been awarded her Phd on the 2nd July 2012 - allowing minimum time for celebrating!

New wind turbine on LSBU roof

On the 4th July 2012 a Proven 6 kW urban wind turbine "Urbine" was installed on the roof of London South Bank University. The 7 storey Tower Block installation was moved over the the Heygate Estate in June and is now wired in to the grid. Another research project has evolved.

A Visit to Aachen University ITA

On the 27-28th June 2012, Dr Stephen Dance visited RWTH Aachen University to have discussions with Michael Vorlander's Group. We also tested a sample material with special fairy dust - but results were not positive. We still believe in Fairies, but not ones that scatter sound.

The National Planning Policy Framework

On the 28th June 2012, the Institute of Acoustics will hold a special seminar on the new Government National Planning Policy Framework.The seminar will be held at London South Bank University CEREB building. This is a sell out event!

Anne Kyyro Quinn Panels feature in Prometheus

Last year designer Anne Kyyro Quinn and the Acoustics Group worked together improving the absorption characteristics of her Leaf Panels. The panels which were on the floor of our reverberation chamber were last seen on the set of Prometheus with Charlize Theron!

Speech re-enforcement System Tested

On the 18th June 2012 a new speech re-enforcement system from Phonak was tested under laboratory conditions. This involved created the world's first dead reverberation chamber!

PA and VA System Design Seminar

On the 8th June 2012 a public acoustics seminar was held at CEREB. The seminar was given by Doctoral Candidate Luis Gomez on the design and optimisation of PA and VA systems on London Underground. Just in time for the Olympics!

Abstracts submitted to Reproduced Sound

Two abstracts have been submitted to the Institute of Acoustics Reproduced Sound 2012 conference. The conference is to be held at the Brighton Thistle Hotel on 14-16 November 2012. The first is on, "On the importance of the speech spectrum on the PA and VA sound system design", and the second is joint with Glen Leembruggen. Looks like a weekend by the sea is in order.

New IoA President - Prof Bridget Shield

On the 12th June 2012, at the Annual General Meeting of the Institute of Acoustics, Prof. Bridget Shield became President of the IoA. The meeting was held in CEREB at London South Bank University after which drinks and nibbles were consumed.

New Research Project with Anande

On the 11th June 2012 a new acoustics project was started with Adande Refrigeration. The KTP Associate is Ana Catarina Marques who will be working on improving the sound quality of the commercial refrigeration unit with the help of Luis Gomez, Dr Ed Hammond, and Dr Stephen Dance. Welcome on board.

Tubitak meeting in Istanbul

Steve was in Istanbul for 24-27 May 2012 for the Turkey. At the invitation of Tubitak Steve presented his ideas successfully to the Fraunhofer Institute and to an Estonia company.He was very happy to see his old Masters students, Ozge Can and Demir Doken.

Royal Academy of Music Audiometry Re-Tests

Picture for illustration purposes only

On the 11th May 2012, the second set of exit audiometric tests for the Royal Academy of Music were completed. Those students identified as at risk from 2008/9 were retested. Then Steve had to run to catch a plane to Hong Kong!!!

MSc student presents at Acoustics 2012

On the 18th May 2012, former Master student Chris McNeillie presented his MSc dissertation at Acoustics 2012 in Hong Kong. The paper was entitled, "Background Noise Level in a Mining Township - A Case Study". Chris is now with SLR Heggies in Queensland, Australia - lucky guy!