CIBSE Technical Symposium 2016

Dr Stephen Dance has been invited to act as the acoustic expert for the CIBSE Techical Symposium 2016. As a member of the Scientific committee he will help decide the papers to be presented. The symposium will be hosted by Heriot-Watt University and held on the 14th and 15th April 2016. 

Acoustics Group Roundup for 2015

Thanks for all your support over 2015. We won more awards with MSc student Eric Bustamante winning the Newman Medal, Richard Earis winning the RBA Acoustics prize, Dr Stephen Dance awarded a Senior Fellowship from the Higher Education Academy as well as Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina receiving his HEA Fellowship.  Links were furthered with the Institute of Acoustics with LSBU running the Certificate of Competence in Environmental Noise Measurement, hosting meetings on Hearing and the Ear, as well as two Masters’ students giving an IOA London branch presentation. Dr Stephen Dance presented his work on hearing and classical musicians to the Central Branch, a one day Speech and Hearing meeting held at Kingston University, and at the Midlands branch. One scientific paper was published in the Journal of Building Acoustics, as well as an article in the IOA Bulletin on musical education by Dr Gomez-Agustina. Presentations were given at the following conferences: Paris, Harrogate, Florence, Turin and Maastricht. Significant consultancy work was undertaken for: Strings and Tins, the Royal Academy of Music, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra. In addition, outreach work with the Training Partnership, Idealworks, The University of the Arts, Royal College of Arts, and Fosters + Partners was undertaken. The Acoustics Group had significant media exposure featuring on BBC Click, Radio 4 and Canadian Broadcast Company Radio. Education wise, it was a bumper year with 41 students enrolled on the MSc/IOA Diploma programmes. We wish them all luck with their respective courses.  Best wishes for the New Year from the Acoustics Group.

Student Christmas Party 2015

On the 17th December 2015 the Institute of Acoustics Diploma and Masters students held their Christmas party in a local English pub. This year it was Mulled Cider and Rum as the party tipple. We all hope they enjoyed their year and a revising right now!

Richard Earis wins RBA Acoustics Prize

Richard Earis, the first Institute of Acoustics Diploma student to come on to the Masters in Environmental and Architectural Acoustics course has won the 2015 RBA Acoustics prize for best dissertation. His thesis was entitled, "An Investigation in to Noise and Annoyance from London Overground Railway in South Hackney". Prize giving is set for the Spring of 2016!

PhD Thesis by Paulina Kowal to be examined

On the 24th February 2016 Paulina Kowal will defend his PhD thesis at the Open University. Dr Stephen Dance will act as the external examiner, and is looking forward to reading the thesis entitled, "Investigating physical, acoustical and perceived differences between model clarinets".

The Annual Acoustics Group Christmas Party

On the evening of the 7th December 2015 the Acoustics Group had their annual Christmas gathering. This year it was held at the Old Vic restaurant, the Waterloo Kitchen and Bar. Old students and new attended the event, along with our guest lecturers and former researchers. We all wished Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina well as he’s come to the end of his term as an LSBU Research Fellow.

Stephen Dance to present at Listen Up!

On the 2nd and 3rd March 2015 the Health and Safety Laboratory has organised a new conference to be joint hosted at Manchester Airport and the HSL in Buxton. The meeting is entitled, "Listen Up" and is the inaugural European Hearing Conservation Conference. Dr Stephen Dance will be presenting his work on the hearing conservation programme organised for the Royal Academy of Music.

Royal College of Art visit the Acoustic Group

On the evening of the 23rd November 2015, the Acoustics Group hosted the now annual visit from the Sound Design students from the Royal College of Art. Mike Wyeld and Dr Stephen Dance demonstrated our excellent facilities in the acoustics laboratory. The students particularly loved staying in silence in the anechoic chamber

Philip Robinson gives a guest lecture

On the 23rd November 2015 Philip Robinson of Fosters + Partners gave a guest lecture to the 2nd year Masters students. Philip gave a couple of great demonstrations on auralisation and virtual reality. The students were really engaged in the presentation particularly when things went wrong!

Visit from the Association of Motion Picture Sound

On the 16th November 2015, the Association of Motion Picture Sound  visited the Acoustics  Group. The were particularly impressed by the facilities of the acoustics laboratory, and enjoyed the demonstrations organised. They spend most of the time in the anechoic chamber which was setup for silence!

Eric Bustamante wins the Newman Medal

On Friday 13th November 2015, Eric Bustamante was awarded the Acoustical Society of America Newman Medal for Architectural Acoustics. His project, supervised by Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina, was in collaboration with the University of the Arts, where Eric gave a lecture on acoustics to the design students. His Masters thesis was entitled, "Application of sustainable materials for the treatment of open-plan spaces". Well done Eric!

New PhD student: Federico Rossi

On Thursday 12th November 2015 Federico Rossi, Leader of DARLAB at London South Bank University, joined the Acoustics Group to study for his doctorate. Federico is an architecture and robotic manufacturering, and hence his PhD is entitled, " Integrating design with robotic manufacturing to benefit acoustics". He will be supervised by Dr Stephen Dance and Professor Andy Ford. We all wish him luck!

Talk to the IOA Central Branch

On the 11th November 2015, Dr Stephen Dance gave an invited talk to the Institute of Acoustics Central Branch. The topic of the talk was on the hearing acuity of classical music student with new results given. These results will be in the next issue of the Acoustics Bulletin.  The talk was kindly hosted  by the Open University and ended with the traditional curry and questions session.

Acoustics Group at Auditorium Acoustics 2015

The Institute of Acoustics organised Auditorium Acoustics 2015 in Paris, with a finale at the newly built La Philharmone 1. The Acoustics Group was well represented with five Masters students in attendance. The students organised the visit themselves with the help of AirBnB. Well done on your initiative  - Eric Ballestero, Andrew Steele, Doug Shearer, Eric Bustamante, Simon Brown!

3-D Printing Poster goes on tour!

Auditorium Acoustics 2015 was held in Paris, 29-31st October 2015. Masters student Andrew Steele presented his thesis poster. The poster was entitled, "The Development of a 3-D printed Dodecahedron Loudspeaker - an improved omnidirectional sound source". Well done on sneaking the poster in!

Audiometric Testing of the London Philharmonic Orchestra

On the 11th November 2015 the Acoustics Group signed their third agreement with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Health surveillance will be undertaken on the musicians and managers adding to the existing database of audiometric data build up in 2009 and 2012. We wish the musicians well with their performance at Wembly tonight for Diwali!

The 2nd year Masters students at work

Here's a photo of nearly all the 2nd year Masters students learning about noise exposure. It was the closest we could get to November 5th as an experiment! Noise exposure at work using various classes of sound level meter and dosimeter!

MSc student Andrew Steele presents at IOA conference

On the 15th October 2015, MSc student Andrew Steele presented his poster at the Institute of Acoustics Conference in Harrogate, UK. His paper was entitled, "Development of a 3d-Printed Dodecahedron Loudspeaker for Improved Omni-directional Sound Radiation". This will form the basis of his Masters dissertation and a informal presentation at Auditorium Acoustics 2015 in Paris!

IOA Diploma student presents at Acoustics 2015, Harrogate

A paper written by 2014-15 IOA Diploma student Mateusz Garbala and his project supervisor Dr Gomez-Agustina was presented on 15 October 2015 at the Institute of Acoustics conference, Acoustics 2015, held in Harrogate. The paper entitled, “Passenger noise exposure in London Underground” was based on his IOA Diploma final project and presented during the Young Person’s session, and the work . Several interesting questions were posed and competently answered. Mateusz company are so happy with this unexpected output from his studies they’ll be using the paper to raise the company profile. Well done Matesuz and Luis.

Seminar to IOA Central Branch

Dr Stephen Dance will be giving a talk to the Institute of Acoustics Central Branch on the 11th November 2015. The talk will be on his latest research with the Royal Academy of Music. The Open University will host the evening event in Milton Keyes. All are welcome!

Anechoic Chamber used on BBC Click

The Acoustics Group anechoic chamber featured in the latest episode of Click. You can check it out at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06g7rs8/click-03102015. It shows we have got a heart!

Meeting held with Fosters and Partners

The Acoustics Group held discussions with Fosters and Partners at their Headquarters in Battersea. It was agreed that Philip Robinson will give a workshop/presentation to the Masters students as to the advances in acoustic data acquisition. At the end of the year the students will each present their acoustic work based on the latest fabrication technology.

Welcome to the 2015 Acoustics Students

On the 1st October 2015, the Acoustics Group welcomed the new students on to the MSc in Environmental and Architectural Acoustics as well as the Institute of Acoustics Diploma. Of course we also welcomed back the second year students giving a total of 40 postgraduate acousticians!

Mirko Thulke gains an MPhil from Liverpool University

On the 30th September 2015 Mirko Thulke delivered his thesis defence at the University of Liverpool, Acoustics Research Unit. He was examined by Dr Stephen Dance and Pyoung Lee, the work was entitled, "Head related transfer function calculated by the Boundary Element Method for a head and torso simulator". Well done Mirko!

The Acoustics Group at the Galpin Society

On the 29th September 2015 the Institute of Acoustics Musical Group and the Galpin Society held a joint meeting at the Faculty of Music, Cambridge. The committee decided that the next meeting will be held in London next summer. I only hope we can do as good a job as Owen Woods in terms of organisation!

The Acoustics Group contributes to the IOA response to a Government consultation

The department for Education launched in July 2015 a consultation about the design and assessment the new GCSE and A level qualifications in Music Technology. The qualification will by taught from September 2017.
On invitation by the Institute of Acoustics (IOA), Dr Gomez-Agustina gave his views on the government proposal as a contribution for the IOA official response. Suggestions were made mainly on the extent and content of acoustics material in the proposed syllabus

Ben Dymock submits his PhD thesis

PhD candidate Ben Dymock submitted his doctoral thesis entitled, "Urban wind turbine- a feasibility study", as funded by EPSRC and Brookfield Multiplex. We wish him luck with his defence on the 28th October 2015!

Institute of Acoustics Certificate Students 2015

Between 21-24th September 2015 the Acoustics Group enrolled 11 students on the Institute of Acoustics Certificate of Competence for Environmental Noise Measurement. The course team, Luis Gomez Augstina, Stephen Dance and Bob Peters hope they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we wish they the best of luck on the 2nd October 2015 when they sit the exam!

Audiometric Testing of the Royal Academy of Music students

 

Over the past three weeks 304 Royal Academy of Music students have undergone audiometric screening tests at the Acoustics Laboratory of London South Bank University. This is the 9th year of testing with over 2900 having been tested. For the first time we had a Baroque Cellist play for us!

BBC Click visit the Anechoic Chamber

On Friday 18th September Laura Lewington from the BBC TV programme Click visited the Acoustic Laboratory of London South Bank University. A piece was filmed to illustrate heart monitoring technology for the show. It will be broadcast at the end of September 2015.

Royal Academy of Music Vocalists Monitored for Vocal Strain

Over the past two weeks PhD candidate Gizem Okten has been monitoring the vocal load of 30 students from the Royal Academy of Music. The students visted the acoustics labs of London South Bank University where the effect on the voice of performing under different acoustic conditions was measured. We wish Gizem well on the writing up of her thesis.

Dr Dance gives a guest lecture at ISVR

On the 10th and 11th September 2015 Dr Stephen Dance visited ISVR at the University of Southampton. This was the 12th year the lecture has been given on architectural acoustics to the short course entitled, Advanced Course in Noise Control. As ever, dinner was arranged down at the docks where fellow lecturers were pursuing a love of food and drink!

Seminars to the Royal Academy of Music students

Over the 9th and 10th September four acoustics related seminars were given to the students of the Royal Academy of Music by Dr Stephen Dance. This was the 8th year such educational materials have been disseminated to undergraduate and postgraduate students. This year was tricky with all the on going construction work due to the refurbishment of the theatre.

Happy Ears for all new Royal Academy of Music students

For the 9th year of the collaboration between the Acoustics Group and the Royal Academy of Music we have organised that every student will receiver a pair of Happy Ears earplugs. These earplugs are new to the market and designed specifically for musicians. We hope the students find them useful!!

MPhil Thesis by Mirko Thulke

On the 30th September 2015 Mirko Thulke will defend his MPhil thesis at Liverpool University. Dr Stephen Dance will act as the external examiner, and is looking forward to reading the thesis entitled, "Head related transfer function calculated using boundary element method for a head and torso simulator".

Research Gate hosts Acoustics Group papers

Research Gate is a useful free to use search tool. The Acoustics Group has uploaded the last 5 years of published papers to the system (the open access model), so that all acousticians can benefit from our research. Hope you enjoy reading the 5 journal papers and 20 conference papers 

Leo to present at IOA Acoustic Design for Sustainable Buildings

Former Masters student Leo Weber, now with BDP, is to present his MSc thesis research results to the Institute of Acoustics half day meeting - Acoustic Design for Sustainable Buildings. His presentation is entitled, "Use of acoustic metamaterials for sound attenutation with airflow. We also wish him luck in his new job!

Visit from Fosters+Partners

On the 30th July Philip Robsinson and Jan Dierckx from Fosters+Partners visited the Acoustics Laboratory and the new Digital Architecture and Robots Lab at London South Bank University. Discussions were held on mutual collaboration opportunitiy combining these two areas of research to produce innovation in the field.

Measurements of the London Symphony Orchestra at the Proms

PhD Candidate Georgia Zepidou has been measuring the personal sound dose of the musicians of the London Symphony Orchestra as part of her research study. The orchestra were playing Prokofiev at the BBC Proms in the Albert Hall on 28th July with three pianists. A very difficult piece to perform!

Pioneering acoustic education initiative article

An article by Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina has been accepted for publication in the next issue Sept-Oct 2015 of the IOA Acoustics Bulletin. The article summarises research carried out over the last 10 moths to support an initiative to introduce basic acoustic education into the performance music curriculum. The findings of the research are highly compelling and promising. The initiative if accepted and implemented could be the beginning of having musicians better educated on the most important science behind their art. We hope you enjoy the article.

Abstracts submitted to IOA Acoustics 2015, Harrogate

 

Two abstracts submitted by IOA Diploma students Mateusz Garbala and Sam Martin with project supervisor Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina has been recently been accepted for paper presentation at ACOUSTICS 2015, a conference organised by the IoA and to take place in Harrogate on Thursday 15 October 2015.  The abstracts are entitled “Passenger noise exposure in London Underground”, and ". Noise exposure and acoustic comfort in intercity coach travel". We'll see you at the conference !