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RESEARCH TEAM

15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) have been employed to undertake research in the framework of the project “VRACE: Virtual Reality Audio for Cyber Environments”, and are funded for 36 months through the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network (ITN) programme. VRACE has established a multidisciplinary training and research programme focusing on the analysis, modelling and rendering of dynamic 3-dimensional soundscapes for applications in Virtual Reality (VR).

Francesc Lluis Salvadó
(ESR1)

University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria

  • Born in Spain
  • BSc in telecommunications engineering from Polytechnic University of Catalonia – BarcelonaTech, Spain
  • MSc in sound and music computing from the Music Technology Group at Pompeu Fabra University, Spain
  • Research interests: intersection of deep learning, acoustics and audio processing

Audio Source Separation

  • Investigate efficient and self-supervised deep learning methods for audio source separation. 
  • Investigate multimodal source separation and localization methods with 3D data and spatial audio.

Andrea Corcuera Marruffo
(ESR2)

University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria

  • Born in Spain
  • BSc degree in Audiovisual Systems Engineering from Pompeu Fabra University, Spain 
  • MSc in Sound and Music Computing from Aalborg University in Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Research interests: spatial audio, psychoacoustics, room acoustics, sound in VR/AR.

Spatial modelling of musical instruments’ sound radiation 

  • Investigate the radiation characteristics of musical instruments and their representation.
  • Investigate the influence of the source’s directivities on the perception of a virtual scene.
  • Study the perception of different aspects of sound radiation.

Titas Lasickas
(ESR3)

University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria

  • Born in Lithuania
  • BSc in Energinnering (Electronic and Computer Science) and MSc in Engineering (Sound and Music Computing)
  • Research interests: musical instrument synthesis, physical modeling and sound in VR/AR.

Physical modelling of collisions

  • Study of the nonlinear dynamics of collisions present in sound excitation mechanisms of musical instruments and other objects in VR
  • Develop robust, accurate and efficient numerical models of collisions for realistic real-time representation of the various sound excitation mechanisms
  • Sound synthesis of musical instruments from reconstructed time-varying playing parameters

Johannes Heinz
(ESR 4)

Technical University Vienna, Austria

  • Born in Germany
  • BSc and MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Technical University of Munich, Germany
  • Research interests: numerical methods for PDEs, technical acoustics and high-performance computing

Parallelization of scalable domain decomposition methods

  • Studying the impact of nonconforming interfaces across multiple processors
  • Optimization of scalability and possible degree of parallelism. 
  • Proof of concept and benchmarking of investigated methods in terms of memory requirements, computing performance and scalability

Jithin Thilakan
(ESR 5)

Detmold University of Music, Germany

  • Born in India
  • BSc in Physics from University of Calicut, India
  • MSc in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Dhanbad, India
  • Research interests: music acoustics, room acoustics, psychoacoustics, acoustic signal processing, auralization, spatial audio

Complex sources and musical ensembles ­ Psychoacoustic assessment of virtual sound fields

  • Evaluation of blending between musical instruments for the reconstruction of a perceptually convincing sound field of an ensemble/orchestra
  • Investigation of the influence of room acoustic parameters in a joint musical performance
  • Simulation of models of musical ensembles and performance of measurements using recent technologies on sound
    field control with sensory evaluation of quality parameters of analysis and reproduction

Viktoriya Korshunova
(ESR 6)

Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

  • Born in Russia,
  • BSc in Psychology from the Modern University for the Humanities in Moscow, Russia
  • BSc in Media Communication from the Karelia University of Applied Sciences in Joensuu, Finland
  • MSc in Sound in New Media, Acoustics and Music Technology from Aalto University, Finland
  • Research interests: acoustics, perceptual psychology, psychoacoustics, audio-visual timing perception, spatial sound, auditory modality, visual modality; multimodal perception; virtual reality, audio engineering (mixing & mastering), sound design, sound recording, computer music composition, video production, new media art, game design

Audio-visual timing tolerances

  • Experimental determination of the JND in the perception of asynchrony between auditory and visual components of a media event and its modalities.
  • Exploration of the effect of stimulus distance on human tolerance for physical asynchronies.
  • Determination of the relationship between perceived asynchrony and VR immersiveness.
  • Development of a specific calibration method for perceived distances in the virtual environment.

David Mascarenhas
(ESR 7)

Centre national de la recherche scientifique, France

  • Born in India
  • BSc and MSc in Physics from University of Pune, India.
  • Research interests: Acoustics of outdoor environments, auralization, acoustic numerical simulation, signal processing.

Physics-based outdoor sound synthesis

  • Adapting existing physics-based emission models for moving sources (wind turbines) and for background noise (wind-induced noise and vegetation noise) in a sound synthesis context.
  • Accounting for the effects of atmospheric variations, ground and obstacles in the propagation model of the sound synthesis tool.
  • Psychoacoustic tests to quantify the effective realism of the auralized outdoor sound source.

Max Miller III
(ESR 8)

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

  • Born in the US
  • BSc in Physics, The University of Akron in Ohio, USA
  • MSc in Architectural Acoustics , Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, USA
  • Research interests: noise and vibration control, product sound quality and control, engineering simulation techniques, automotive NVH

Hybrid methods in room acoustics

  • Development of a single sound propagation model that is valid in the full audible range, based on a combination of element-based approaches and geometrical methods, using parallel filter banks for different frequency bands, taking GPU acceleration in consideration.

Fabio Di Giusto
(ESR 9)

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

  • Born in Italy
  • BSc in Mechanical Engineering from University of Udine, Italy
  • MSc in Engineering Acoustics from Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
  • Research interests: acoustical engineering, numerical methods/simulations techniques, audio processing, sound perception

HRTF modelling

  • Numerical HRTF computation for auralisation of individual VR/AR auditory experiences based on meshed ears/head/torso geometry of a subject scanned through photogrammetry
  • Obtainment of (close to) real time computation in the full auditory range using hybrid methods, model order reduction techniques and/or parallel computing
  • Validation of the results through objective and perceptual measurements

Nils Meyer-Kahlen
(ESR 10)

Aalto University, Finland

  • Born in Germany
  • Bsc and MSc in Electrical Engineering and Audio Engineering at the Technical University and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria
  • Research interests: technology and perception of spatial audio and sound in VR

Room Virtualization for Mixed Reality Audio

  • Techniques for accurately recreating the acoustical behavior of real spaces 
  • Experimental Methods for Mixed Reality Audio Evaluation

Yuqing Li
(ESR 11)

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany

  • Born in China
  • BSc in Geochemistry from Nanjing University, China and BSc in Geology from University of Edinburgh, UK
  • MSc in Acoustics and Music Technology, University of Edinburgh, UK
  • Research interests: physics-based numerical modelling and simulation, room acoustics measurements, binaural audio, psychoacoustics

Binaural rendering

  • Design and apply efficient, accurate methods and procedure for measuring near-field HRTFs on human subjects
  • Develop models for the binaural reproduction of spatially extended sound sources with non-uniform vibration surfaces
  • Render a physically correct virtual auditory environment in the near-field, including 3Dof movements of the listener

Abhiram Bhanuprakash
(ESR 12)

Queen’s University Belfast, UK

  • Born in India 
  • BE in Electronics and Communications from Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysore, India 
  • MSc in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India 
  • Research interests: music technology, physical modelling, numerical sound synthesis, digital signal processing 

Physics-based source modelling with time-variant parameters 

  • Introducing extended parameter time-variance in physics-based simulations of musical instruments and other mechano-acoustic sources. 
  • Studying stability and energy conserving properties of numerical algorithms with respect to dynamic parameter variations.  
  • Numerical sound synthesis under time-variation of articulatory and tuning parameters, and sensor interface design for real-time control of these parameters.

Otavio Colella Gomes
(ESR 13)

Müller-BBM GmbH, Germany

  • Born in Brazil
  • BA in Music from Faculdade Mozarteum de Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • MPhil in Music and Media Technology at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
  • research interests: evaluate and predict the acoustical fingerprint of rooms.

Advanced room acoustics modelling methods

  • To study, compare and further develop advanced acoustic modelling and auralization methods for interior spaces.
  • Assessment of the subjective relevance of predicted or measured quality parameters for concert theatres, multipurpose halls and other communication spaces.
  • Use of sensory focused approaches to identify the auditory relevance of architectural features

Joao Cardenuto
(ESR 14)

Siemens Industry Software-NV, Belgium

  • Born in Brasil
  • Aeronautical Engineering – Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazil
  • Emphasis in Computational Fluid Dynamics (Institute of Mathematics and Computer Sciences – ICMC/USP)
  • Research interests are: Auralization schemes, post-processing data from acoustical simulations, industrial applications of VR

Contextualizing Numerical acoustics: Listen to your design, operating in its soundscape

  • Studying innovative VR tools to create immersive audio experience for CAE users to listen to their design.
  • Studying different auralization schemes to be used with post-processed acoustic simulation data.
  • Creating a user centric CAE acoustics software workflow by developing an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environment.

Daniil Sinev
(ESR 15)

Sennheiser electronic GmbH, Germany

  • Born in Russia
  • French citizenship
  • BSC in audiovisual technology from Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics, Russia
  • MSc in Electro-Acoustics from Le Mans University, France
  • Research interests: Acoustics, Signal processing, Psychoacoustics

Ear canal acoustics

  • Modeling individual acoustics of the ear canal using remote sensors integrated into an earphone
  • Estimation of sound pressure at the eardrum to enhance performance of binaural rendering, ANC and Transparent Hearing
  • Validation measurements at the eardrum and numerical simulations