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Dr Matthew Wright, Dr Stefan Bleeck
Applications accepted all year round
About the Project
Today’s signal processing algorithms can reduce noise and increase speech quality, but crucially they are not good at improving speech intelligibility in challenging environments. Better speech enhancement would have an impact on hearing aid and cochlear implant users, but also on any other form of transmitted speech (mobile phones, television, radio). We believe that only a better understanding of the human auditory system and in consequence bio-inspired algorithms will provide the necessary breakthrough in human communication.
The part of the brain that deals with sound consists of a large number of neurons each of which responds differently. We have recently shown that the diverse behaviour of individual neurons can be very simply modelled by only a few parameters. Now we have a good understanding of individual neuronal responses, but the question remains as to how sound is represented on a macro-scale, and how complex functions, such as speech perception, emerge from such simple micro-scale components.
In this project, you will investigate this question by simulating the response of a large number of neurons in order to understand the observed emerging properties. We expect that this will lead to novel insights about human sound perception and we aim to develop novel noise reduction algorithms. You will be working within an interdisciplinary group of researchers, funded by Google and EPSRC, with the common goal to develop bio-inspired tools for better speech communication.
We are looking for a highly motivated student with a background in signal processing and at least one of the following: physics, electrical engineering, mathematics, acoustics, hearing research, computer science or complexity science. You will be working in an environment with unique interdisciplinary expertise in acoustical engineering, audiology and signal processing, the perfect setting for this challenging project.
This project is being offered as a potential project area for the complex systems simulation doctoral training centre at the University of Southampton, please see: http://www.icss.soton.ac.uk/ for more details on the doctoral programme and the full application process
If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Matthew Wright, Institute of Sound and Vibration, Email: [Email Address Removed], Tel: +44 23 8059 2153.
The part of the brain that deals with sound consists of a large number of neurons each of which responds differently. We have recently shown that the diverse behaviour of individual neurons can be very simply modelled by only a few parameters. Now we have a good understanding of individual neuronal responses, but the question remains as to how sound is represented on a macro-scale, and how complex functions, such as speech perception, emerge from such simple micro-scale components.
In this project, you will investigate this question by simulating the response of a large number of neurons in order to understand the observed emerging properties. We expect that this will lead to novel insights about human sound perception and we aim to develop novel noise reduction algorithms. You will be working within an interdisciplinary group of researchers, funded by Google and EPSRC, with the common goal to develop bio-inspired tools for better speech communication.
We are looking for a highly motivated student with a background in signal processing and at least one of the following: physics, electrical engineering, mathematics, acoustics, hearing research, computer science or complexity science. You will be working in an environment with unique interdisciplinary expertise in acoustical engineering, audiology and signal processing, the perfect setting for this challenging project.
This project is being offered as a potential project area for the complex systems simulation doctoral training centre at the University of Southampton, please see: http://www.icss.soton.ac.uk/ for more details on the doctoral programme and the full application process
If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Matthew Wright, Institute of Sound and Vibration, Email: [Email Address Removed], Tel: +44 23 8059 2153.
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