Akustik-Blog

Last week, our colleagues Carolin Breuer and Natálie Brožová presented their work at the 5^th workshop on Cognitive neuroscience of auditory and cross-modal perception in Kosice, Slovakia. The workshop was focused on neural processes of auditory, visual, and cross-modal perception with a special focus on spatial audio virtualization and gamification for hearing assessment and enhancement. Featuring 16 invited talks as well as contributed posters and presentations, the workshop allowed for a very familiar atmosphere that encouraged exchanges among attendees. These participants came from diverse fields such as acoustics, neuroscience, biology, and psychology, to name just a few.

Natálie Brožová presented her recent study on “Investigating the Neural Basis of Audiovisual Cross-modal Correspondences and Their Influence on Perceptual Decision-Making” which is part of the interdisciplinary Research Training Group “MultiSenses – MultiScales”.

Carolin Breuer presented a poster investigating visual priming on auditory selective attention in Virtual Reality which is an extension of a previous study presented at DAGA 2023 and was conducted as part of the ECoClass-VR project related to the priority program AUDICTIVE.

Group Picture of KogNeuro Workshop 2024

Poster Session during KogNeuro Wkroshop 2024

Again, IHTA is joining DAGA in Hannover with interesting contributions from March, 19th, to March, 21th, 2024. We are delighted to invite to our presentations and posters. In total, IHTA members will be represented with 19 contributions (15 presentations and 4 posters):

An overview of all contributions and updated information can be found in the DAGA 2024 App.

We are looking forward to seeing you at DAGA 2024!

Application deadline extended until March 27, 2024!

We are hiring!
Are you looking for a PhD position in acoustics?

The Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics at RWTH Aachen University focuses on the physical and technical aspects of sound as well as the human perception and processing of sound.

We have three open positions:

1. as part of the DFG priority program AUDICTIVE we are looking for a doctoral candidate in the field of acoustics for an interdisciplinary project with project partners from psychology and virtual reality:
Job ID V000007166: Research assistant (f/m/d) – PhD position in the field of audiovisual virtual reality

2. as part of a research project funded by the Federal Aeronautical Research Program, we are looking for a PhD student in the field of acoustics to investigate the sound propagation and perception of different flight routes and strategies of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS):
Job ID V000007199: Research assistant (f/m/d) – PhD position in the field of sound propagation and perception of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)

3. within the framework of the Collaborative Research Center „Hearing Acoustics“ (SFB 1330, HAPPAA, https://uol.de/en/sfb-1330-hearing-acoustics) funded by the German Research Foundation, we are looking for a doctoral candidate in the field of acoustics to research the perception of one’s own voice when using hearing aids and assistive listening devices in communication situations:
Job ID V000007200: Research assistant (f/m/d) – PhD position in the field of perception of one’s own voice when using hearing aids and assistive listening devices in communication situations

Please apply indicating the job ID and a detailed application (see the links above for application details) at jobs@akustik.rwth-aachen.de by March 27, 2024.

We look forward to receiving your application!

On December 14th and 15th seven PhDs and one Postdoc from the Equal Life project met for a symposium in Aachen. The participants provided a wide perspective on their PhD projects within Equal-Life. The two days were filled with good dialougue on challenges yet to overcome and achievements reached in each project part. Questions about research aims, methods, and results were answered and experiences were shared. Additionally, the exposome concept that Equal-Life is based on was subject of dicusscion alongside methods for responsible research and innovation. Everyone experienced a demo in the AixCave to learn about acoustic and virtual reality research. And of course, Aachen’s Christmas market was visited in the evening.

Im Rahmen eines Workshops für junge Wissenschaflterinnen im Forschungsverbund SPP2236 – AUDICTIVE, durften wir das Deutsche Hörgeräteinstitut in Lübeck besuchen. Wir bekamen eine Führung durch die Räumlichkeiten des Prüflabors und eine Präsentation der Tätigkeiten. Vielen herzlichen Dank an den Leiter des Institutes Dr. Hendrik Husstedt, sowie den Mitarbeitern Dr. Florian Denk und Markus Kemper, die uns einen sehr interessanten Einblick in ihre Tätigkeiten gegeben haben.

Besuch beim Deutschen Hörgeräte Institut. Foto: Jamilla Balint

On July 20th, around 20 pupils aged 16 to 18 years, visited IHTA as part of the “Schüler*innenuni” by the Electrical Engineering faculty at RWTH Aachen. In a short introduction, they got insights into what research is conducted at IHTA and which role institutes take over at the university. Afterwards, they took part in four different workshops. They experienced the effect of standing waves, how we hear binaurally, and how the speed of sound and the Doppler effect are connected. Additionally, they built a simple loudspeaker with Lego bricks, aluminium foil, and magnets. To conclude the “Schüler*innenuni” workshop at IHTA, three research assistants presented what they studied and how they afterwards found their way into research. Everybody had a lot of fun experiencing some fundamentals of acoustics, the pupils as well as the assistants!

From April 3rd to 5th 2023, the Equal-Life Consortium Meeting hosted by the Karolinska Institute took place in Stockholm. The Equal-Life project is part of the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme by the European Union. The project’s aim is to better understand the different exposures (physical, social, internal) children experience in childhood and adolescence, which may have an impact on the individual health status as in adulthood.

Karin Loh and Julia Seitz attended the meeting as consortium members. Both presented parts of their work. Julia Seitz gave a talk in the PhD session on ‘Examining Listening Effort in Children in Classroom Situations’. As part of the session ‘Selected contributions from Equal-Life’, Karin Loh presented  ‘Exploring noise effects by linking auditory selective attention switches and heart rate variability measured in children’.

The BaLSaM project investigates how traffic noise can be simulated and auralized, aiming to develop concepts to minimize road noise to create more pleasant environments. The goal is to make living spaces more attractive for people. For this purpose, the simulation focuses on the noise perception of humans so that the noise pollution is represented as accurately as possible. This simulation technique will later be used in planning traffic and living spaces. Additionally, an optimization study for exemplary scenarios will also be carried out during the project. If you are interested in this topic, we would like to invite you to the online BaLSaM kickoff event. You can register here: (DE) http://bit.ly/BaLSaMde

BaLSaM is funded within the mFUND framework.

The BaLSAM project partners are:

• RWTH Aachen University
  • Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics (IHTA)
  • PAAD research group at IHTA
  • Institute for Automotive Engineering (ika)
• RHA REICHER HAASE ASSOZIIERTE GmbH
• HEAD acoustics GmbH

BaLSaM stands for “Braunkohlereviere als attraktive Lebensräume durch Straßengeräuschsimulation auf Basis bestehender Verkehrsdaten zur Minimierung von Lärm” and more information on the project can be found here: https://www.ika.rwth-aachen.de/de/pressemitteilungen/4140-attraktive-lebensräume-fürs-braunkohlerevier-–-projekt-balsam-hilft,-belastung-durch-straßenlärm-zu-minimieren.html