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EAA Summer School

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EAA SUMMER SCHOOL

The EAA Summer School for Young Acousticians will take place from Friday, September 8 (2pm), 2023 until Sunday, September 10 (1pm), 2023 preceding the Forum Acusticum Conference (FA2023).

The summer school is chaired by Dr. Louena Shtrepi (Politecnico di Torino, Italy) and Dr. Iván Herrero-Durá (Bertrandt Group, Germany).

A plenary keynote by Prof. Monika Rychtáriková (KU Leuven, Belgium) will open the Summer School.

Highlights:

The lecture module “Fundamentals in Acoustics” will be taught oriented for undergraduate students, young researchers and professionals non-expert in acoustics. The registration fee is 50 €.

Several lecture modules on specific hot topics will run in parallel for PhD students, young researchers and professionals, and undergraduate students with at least 6 ECTS credits on their CV in acoustics (not required for participants in Hot Topic 7). The registration fee is 100 €.

An evaluation test is foreseen on the last day, Sunday, September 10. By following the full course and passing the evaluation, students can earn 1 ECTS credit.

Summer School registration will be possible from February 28 to August 30, 2023.

Please check the website for updates on applications for Grants. The deadline for Grants application is on March 31.

Detailed information

(1) The lecture module “Fundamentals in Acoustics” and the Hot Topics will run in parallel and will have the same duration (from Friday, September 8 (2pm), 2023 until Sunday, September 10 (1pm), 2023).

(2) PhD students, young researchers, professionals and graduated students (with at least 6 ECTS credits in acoustics on their CV – not required for participants in Hot Topic 7) will get the opportunity to follow one of the hot topic modules, taught by international experts. It is important to note that the modules related to hot topics will be taught in parallel, so attendees should register for specific courses according to their interests.

(3) Students will need to provide a proof (copy of student ID) and courses list demonstrating at least 6 ECTS credits in acoustics on their CV (not required for participants in Hot Topic 7). These documents need to be uploaded as pdf, jpg or word.doc and in English during the online registration.

(4) Tickets will be sold on a first-come first-served basis. Each course has limited places (100 places for the Fundamentals in Acoustics and 25 places for each Hot Topic).

(5) For the participants in the course “Fundamentals in Acoustics” only, the accommodation (two nights) is included in the course fee. Lunch and coffee breaks are included in the course fee for all the participants.

 The Fundamentals and Hot topics that will be addressed in the modules are the following:

The Fundamentals module will focus on: Basic signal properties: Period, wavelength and frequency; More advanced signal properties: Pure and complex sounds, frequency decomposition and sound spectrum.

Acoustic quantities: levels and their manipulation, Octave bands and physiology of hearing, binaural hearing. Basic software tools for acoustic analysis will be presented.

Definitions, and fundamental equations for propagation of sound; The general solution of the wave equation in free space; Wave-surface interactions, 1D wave equation solution including reflection cofficient; Sound absorption, types of sound absorption materials; Sound insulation, governing principles; Sound propagation in open and enclosed spaces.

Organizers: Francesco Martellotta and Maarten Hornikx

The hot topic “Environmental Acoustics & Soundscapes” will cover emerging research trends and methodologies about environmental noises and their perception for both outdoor and indoor applications. The topics will be approached from both a quantitative and qualitative angle. Lecturers will deliver talks from policy-making and research backgrounds, dealing with recent advances in themes of interest, such as identification and management of (urban) quiet areas, links between noise exposure and human behaviours. The second part will cover recent progress in standardization about soundscape studies, as well as some operational tool to analyze and visualize soundscape qualitative data in workshop-based session.

(Organizer: Francesco Aletta, Francesco Asdrubali, Jian Kang, Cristina Pronello. Lecturers/Presenters/Demo organizers: Francesco Aletta, Francesco Asdrubali, Theo Benjert, Jian Kang, Andrew Mitchell, Simone Torresin, Cristina Pronello. Industrial Partner: TBD).

Aeroacoustics is one of the challenges for engineers approaching either an industrial or an academic career in propulsion, wind energy and aerodynamics. The aim of the summer school is to provide the attendees with the fundamental knowledge about the most recent advancements in experimental and numerical methods in the field.

The first part of the summer school will focus on the recent development of beamforming techniques for acoustic measurements both in closed and open wind tunnel test sections. The industrial perspective from a leading wind energy industry, where aeroacoustics is a key challenge, will be given by Dr. Oerlemans (Head of Aeroacoustics at Siemens Gamesa Wind Power). The first part of the course will conclude with a practical experience in the Pinifarina aeroacoustic wind tunnel facility.

Computational methods in aeroacoustics are becoming widely used in both academia and industry. The second part of the course will focus on the fundamental of computational aeroacoustics and will provide an overview of the recent advancements in computational methods. Focus will be given to the selection of the best numerical approach for a given aeroacoustic problem. Examples from recent applications in both the industrial and academic environment will be provided.

Organizers: Renzo Arina and Francesco Avallone. Lecturers/Presenters/Demo organizers: Alessandro Aquili, Francesco Avallone, Roberto Camussi, Damiano Casalino, Stefan Oerlemans, Daniele Ragni, Christophe Schram, Riccardo Zamponi. Industrial Partners: Pinifarina (Italy), Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (Denmark).

The Hot Topic “Auralization” will cover aspects of sound field simulation and spatial audio reproduction. Starting with a general introduction to the field of virtual acoustics and the concept of auralization, methods for real-time audio rendering and room auralizations are presented, accompanied by examples in practice. The second part of the course focuses on spatial audio reproduction, approaches such as Higher-Order Ambisonics, Wave-Field Synthesis and other techniques are presented and, in some cases, also demonstrated in a loudspeaker array system. In addition to the lectures and demo sessions, the course will also include hands-on exercises, where participants will be able to create and listen to their own auralizations.

Organizers: Lamberto Tronchin and Lukas Aspöck. Lecturers/Presenters/Demo organizers: Jens Ahrens, Lukas Aspöck, Angelo Farina, Peter Svensson, Franz Zotter, Kahle Acoustics. Industrial Partners: TBD.

The aim of the training is to help the participants to gain knowledge necessary to perform the full process of acoustic optimization of the product. The course combines an experimental and virtual approach and the factors considered include both objective and subjective parameters of product quality assessment. The participants of the course will gain knowledge through both lectures and practical activities such as measurements and analysis of the particular object. The organizers’ goal is to introduce the full flow of the acoustic optimization process in an easy, interesting and understandable way and to outline new approaches in acoustical design.

The participants, organized in small working groups, each helped by an expert instructor, will work on a multiphysics model of a metamaterial for sound absorption. Each group will select a specific model among those proposed in the introductory lecture and try to obtain the maximum absorption in a given frequency range. The best model will be realized by additive manufacturing and tested in an impedance tube. Finally, the participants and the instructors will compare the expected and measured performance and discuss the pros and cons of the different models. A multiphysics program with a temporary license will be available for each participant.

Organizers: Massimo Garai, Gioia Fusaro, Tim Starkey. Lecturers/Presenters/Demo organizers: Federico Bosia, Luca D’Alessandro, Gioia Fusaro, Massimo Garai, Jean-Philippe Groby, Noé Jiménez, Marco Miniaci, Vicente Romero-Garcia, Tim Starkey, Bogdan Ungureanu. Industrial Partners: Phononic Vibes (Milan) and Multiwave (Switzerland).

Metrology primarily aims at providing measurement traceability, i.e. the process by which the physical phenomena detected by a measurement system are quantified in a precise, accurate and reproducible way. The reliability of measurement results, which implies a correct assessment of their uncertainty, is the basis of experimental verification in any scientific and technical field. It supports fundamental research, favours the improvement of industrial production processes; enhances the effectiveness of applied technologies for health, environment, and energy; guarantees the functionality of newly developed smart-systems, and provides access to available data for the sake of meaningful comparisons.

In the field of acoustics, metrology makes it possible to ensure, and certify through calibration, that a specific measuring instrument, such as a microphone or a sound level meter, provides truly correct and comparable results, which can be exploited for the trustworthiness of measurements and to improve the truth likeness of the computational models. Beyond this, acoustics measurements are used to achieve accurate determinations of the thermophysical properties of fluids and solids, to realize the most accurate primary standards of temperature, as well as for applications of ultrasounds in medicine and surgery, and to develop advanced monitoring and survey systems, based on wide sensor networks and digital smart technologies.

Organizers/Lecturers: Alessandro Schiavi, Roberto Gavioso, Gianni Durando, Fabio Saba, Laura Rossi.

The Hot Topic “Acoustic Analysis of Speech and Voice” aims at giving a specific glance to the field of human and animal communication with particular reference to the technological progresses of the last years. It mainly addresses to PhD students of the linguistic, biological, phoniatric disciplines, as well as to professionals dealing with speech processing, speech therapy, artistic and professional voice and language learning. The organization of classroom time includes hours of theory and hours of practical work.

Organizers: Antonio Romano, Valentina De Iacovo and Marco Gamba. Lecturers/Presenters/Demo organizers: Nathalie Henrich Bernardoni, Marco Gamba. Industrial Partners: AISV (Italy); Translated (Italy) and Pervoice (Italy).

Auditory research requires many tools, ranging from frameworks for psychoacoustic experiments to toolboxes for spatial-audio signal processing. Research in ecologically-valid extended reality requires the consideration of multisensory perception, involving toolboxes designed for auditory-focused but multisensory stimulation. This hot topic aims at providing the participants with tools to improve their research across a wide range of auditory research. To this end, we will introduce toolboxes and provide hands-on sessions with experts on these toolboxes.

We will introduce the auditory modeling toolbox (AMT) offering a variety of auditory models, from loudness to sound localization. We will have the large time-frequency analysis toolbox (LTFAT) providing a collection of verified time-frequency algorithms for multichannel audio processing. We will introduce the package AFC, a versatile and flexible tool to run alternative forced choice experiments. We will introduce the virtual acoustics package (VA) for testing auditory cognitive abilities in interactive virtual environments, followed by the real-time simulated open-field environment (rtSOFE) for rendering virtual sound sources with their reflections, and the room acoustics simulator (RAZR) to create fast and perceptually plausible immersion. Finally, we will introduce the brain virtual interactivity platform (BRAVI) focused on the associations between psychophysiological states and the multisensory characteristics of virtual environments.

Organizer: Piotr Majdak and Nicki Holighaus. Lecturers/Presenters/Demo organizers:  Piotr Majdak, Clara Hollomey, Roberto Barumerli, Alejandro Osses, Lukas Aspöck, Janina Fels, Massimiliano Masullo, Stephan Ewert, Bernhard Seeber, Nicki Holighaus.

EAA SUMMER SCHOOL – from Friday 8th to Sunday 10th September 2023
Fundamentals € 50
Hot Topics € 100

Please, kindly note that all rates include the VAT 22%.

EAA Summer School Grants – call for applications

The grants to be awarded will be Free Registration for 10 winners for each Hot Topic.

To be eligible for the travel grants you must meet the following conditions:

  • Be a young researcher/student enrolled on a university course (Bachelor, Master, PhD) or already have a Master or PhD degree;
  • Be no more than 35 years old on the 31st of December 2023;
  • Be a citizen or working in a country with Acoustics National Societies which belong to the EAA;
  • Be a member of the country’s National Society (valued but not mandatory).

If you meet the necessary conditions, submit your application. Submissions will be accepted until the 31st of March 2023.

Please consider the 30th of May as the announcement date for the Grants’ winners

How to apply:

  • Complete the Registration to the Summer School indicating whether you would you like to be considered for a grant.
  • This is a highly competitive process for a limited number of grants, ensure you provide all the information requested on the registration form.
  • Please note that the grants will be given after the summer school attendance.