Telent sponser studentship

Telent plc are offering an on-going studentship for a Masters student on the Acoustics course. The studentship will cover half the European course fees. There is an opportunity to undertake a internship with the company over the summer. The scheme will run for 2009,10 and 2011.

LSBU leads Great Britain in KTP projects

London South Bank University now has more Knowledge Transfer Partnerships than any other British University, thanks to the work of the KTP office. The Department of Engineering System has just employed a Business Development Office, Yuan Xing, to further push enterprise, consultancy, business and research. Well done everyone!

Schultz Grant for Education Completed

Dr Stephen Dance was awarded the Schultz Grant for Architectural Acoustics Education in May 2007. In December 2008 the new Acoustics Group website was unveiled. The new site includes all the activities undertaken by the group, such as education, research, consultancy and enterprise work. Students are provided for by way of profiles, conferences and access to past Masters dissertations. Finally, computer models are freely available for use by the acoustics community, these include reverberation time, speech intelligibility, sound level distribution and absorption coefficients. Happy New Year to you all.

Sensgard Ear Protector Tested

The Sensgard ear protector was fully tested by an intrepid researcher using undercover techniques, I dressed up as Boris Johnson and went nightclubbing! Subjectively it was found to be effective, but the tubes seemed to be ineffective at attenuating the bass in the club. Officially, the Zem Sensgard is rated at 32.5 dB at 125 Hz linearly increasing to 37 dB noise reduction at 8 kHz with an NRR of 26. Merry Christmas to you all!

Research Assessment Exercise 2008

The results of the Research Assessment Exercise 2008 was released on 18th December 2008. The exercise covered all UK universities for the period 2001-7 inclusive. The Acoustics Group was part of a London South Bank University submission under General Engineering, 60% of the staff submitted were considered to be World Leading or be Excellent (4*/3* rating). Under the previous scheme this would be rated as 5*. By way of comparison, 60% of staff at ISVR were considered World Leading or Excellent (under Mech Engineering category), and 65% of the staff submitted by Salford were considered to be World Leading or Excellent. Well done to everybody and Merry Christmas!

Knowledge Connect with London Philharmonic

The Acoustics Group commenced work on a Knowledge Connect scheme on 15th December 2008 in collaboration with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. We hope, over the next 6 months, to address some of the issues raised by the new Noise at Work Regulations. This will include audiometry, dosimetry, architectural acoustics and education. Its a lot of work, in a little time!

Independent tests of the Absorptive Mirror

On Tuesday 9th December 2008 ANV Measurement Systems undertook the independent evaluation of the new sound absorbing mirror patented by London South Bank University Enterprises. The mirrors were found to an effective absorber from 250 Hz to 4kHz with a Noise Coefficient Rating of 0.8. These second generation mirrors will be installed at the Royal Academy of Music in their rehearsal and practice rooms.