Thursday 27 July 2017

Movie Shot in the Acoustics Laboratory

Whilst ICSV 24 was going on the Acoustics Laboratory was free, hence a film crew came in to shoot a movie, due for release in 2018. The psychology thriller was particularly interested in the anechoic chamber and the sound booths!

Acoustic Group assists with ISCV 24


At ICSV 24 the Institute of Acoustics required some additional help, so the call went out to acoustic students! The call was answered by ISVR and the Acoustics Group. So a special thanks goes to Eugenie, Doug, Dhruvit and Ian for all their running around!

International Congress on Sound and Vibration 24

Between 23-27 July 2017 London hosted the International Congress on Sound and Vibration. This was the 24th such meeting organised jointly by the Institute of Acoustics and the International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration, of whom Dr Stephen Dance is a founding member. At the meeting there were 1040 delegates presenting 940 papers from 60 countries.  The presentations were given in 16 parallel sessions over 4 days. The event was a great success with many discussions which went on late in the evening!

International Congress on Sound of Vibration comes to London!

The International Congress on Sound and Vibration came to London, July 23-27th 2017. The host were the Plaza Hotel opposite the Palace of Westminster. This location is just 12 minute walk from London South Bank University were we are based. The Acoustics Group had a significant presence at the conference with five papers presented, one theme organised - Musical Acoustics, and four assistants helping out with the running of the event. Our thanks go to all of them for doing such an amazing job!

PhD student Gizem Okten presents at ICSV 24

On Monday 24th July former PhD student Gizem Okten presented her research to ICSV 24 in the Musical Acoustics session. Gizem's paper was entitled, "An investigation into the effect of acoustics on vocal strain of Opera singers". This research summarized her entire doctoral thesis! Gizem now works at WSP in their London office.

MSc student Eric Ballestero presents at ICSV 24

On Wednesday 26th July 2017 MSc student Eric Ballestero presented his Masters thesis on Virtual Reality at ICSV 24. Eric presented in the Signal Processing session his paper was entitled, "Head tracked auralisation for a dynamic audio experience for a dynamic audio experience in virtual reality sceneries". Eric is now a PhD student on our doctoral programme so he can continue with the research.

MSc student Rodrigo Sanchez-Pizani prresents at ICSV 24

On Tuesday 25th July 2017 MSc student Rodrigo Sanchez-Pizani presented his Masters thesis to ICSV 24. Rodrigo's presentation was in the Room Acoustics session and entitled, "Impact that acoustic design has on higher education for non-English speaking students". He has just been funded by King's College to continue the work as a PhD student.

Luis Gomez presents at ICSV 24

On Monday 24th July 2017 Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina gave a presentation at ICSV 24 to Education Project and Policy on, "Do performance musicians need acoustic education?". After asking the audience there was a unanimous answer!

Saturday 22 July 2017

New NTi Environmental Noise Monitoring Kit

On the 21st July 2017 the Acoustics Group purchased 2 new NTi M2230 WP measurement systems for outdoor monitoring of noise. The new kit is already in use working on the Heliport project taking long term environmental noise measurements.

Monday 17 July 2017

Laser Displacement Measurement System

A Micro-Epsilon Laser Measurement System ILD 1420 has been purchased by the Acoustics Group. This instrument will allow vibrations to be measured using non contact techniques. It has uses in environmental noise, fire and explosions as well as in material performance.

Thursday 13 July 2017

Masters student present to IOA London branch

On the 12th July 2017 for the sixth year Masters students presented to the Institute of Acoustics London branch. Three students presented their dissertations, Rodrigo Sanchez-Pizani gave an overview of speech intelligibility for non native English speakers, This was followed by Nathan Gregory on his work on objective and subjective analysis of high speed rail. Finally Eric Ballestero presented on acoustically realistic virtual reality. The evening ended in summer drinks at the Knights Templar bar kindly sponsored by ANV Measurements. Thanks Mike!

Tuesday 11 July 2017

Closer ties formed with the Institute of Acoustics

The LBSU Acoustics group is now officially represented in both the IOA London Branch committee and IOA Education committee by Luis Gomez-Agustina. The London Branch committee  looks after the organisation and smooth running of educational , industrial and networking events in the London area. The IOA Education Committee is responsible for determining and managing the Institute’s education policy and developing and promoting acoustics, and acoustics-related education and training for members and others.

Thursday 6 July 2017

Virtual Acoustics Lab Built

Thanks to the generous support of Oculus the Acoustics Group now has a virtual acoustics laboratory. Using hardware: a MSI gaming laptop and an Oculus Rift Head Mounted Display combined with software: the Unity gaming engine, MaxMSP and CATT-Acoustics a virtual reality can be built. This will be used to test future ideas quickly, cheaply and realistically. Let the future begin!

Wednesday 5 July 2017

PhD candidate gives presentation at ASA Boston 2017

PhD candidate Nick Durup gave the opening invited presentation in the Architectural Acoustics session on Classroom acoustics at the Acoustical Society of America meeting in Boston. Nick summarised the results of his PhD research to an engaged audience, fielding a number of questions which should calm his nerves before his doctoral defence!

Work of the Newman Committee in Boston 2017

Over the week of the 173rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America held in Boston 25-29th June 2017, the Newman Fund held a number of outstanding events for the students of Architectural Acoustics. The 30th anniversary of the Newman Fund was celebrated at a special meeting in the presence of Bob Newman's son Brad. Where thanks was given by the students of the awards from the Posters, to the Schultz prize, to the Newman medallists. A special thanks should go to Carl Rosenberg for chairing, and a warm welcome to Lily Wang who has to fill some big shoes!

Monday 3 July 2017

Steve Presents at ASA/EAA meeting

On Thursday 29th June 2017 Dr Stephen Dance presented at the 173rd Acoustical Society of America meeting held in Boston. Steve presented his research with the Royal Academy of Music on hearing of classical musicians a 10 year study. The result of which was that the students hearing had improved over their time at the Academy!