Final Meeting

This week, all consortium members and 11 ESRs met together to celebrate the successful end of the project. Ioanna Peppa, the EU project officer from Brussels, could also join the online meeting and was impressed by the stunning results.

The ESRs had the chance to present their research highlights they had produced over more than 3 years. Some of them have already completed their PhD, some will finish them in the next months.  Additionally, an overview of the network workshops and the numerous publications was given. The meeting was closed with an overview on the reporting tasks for the members that are due in the next weeks.

 

Workshop in HEL

A final Technical Workshop was organised in Aalto in May 2023, by request of the ESRs. Given the fact that several of the workshops were previously held virtually, the ESRs wanted the opportunity to meet one more time.

The workshop consisted of presentation by VRACE ESRs and supervisors, a hands-on workshop on generating virtual scenes and an excursion to Suomenlinna.

Workshop Agenda:

  • 12:00-14:00 Lab tour and lunch
  • 14:15-15:15 Introduction to Aalto Acoustics Lab (Tapio Lokki)
  • 15:15-16:30 ESR presentations
  • 16:45-18:00 Coffee break & discussion
  • Evening Dinner and beer and Fat Lizzard in Otaniemi
  • 9:30-10:00 Arrival and coffee
  • 10:00-12:30 VR hands-on workshop (Sebastian Schlecht and Aaron Geldert)
  • 12:30-14:00 Lunch
  • 14:30-17:30 VR hands-on workshop part 2
  • Evening Dinner in Helsinki
  • 10:00 Meet at Kauppatori, Ferry ride to Suomenlinna island
  • 12:30 Lunch at Suomenlinna Brewery

Technical workshop – mdw Vienna

During the Vienna Talk 2022 conference, a special session was organised where VRACE ESRs presented their research to all conference participants and other visitors.

Furthermore, a public tutorial course was held, where Maarten van Walstijn (QUB) discussed several aspects regarding the design of virtual acoustic instruments.

Finally, a farewell event was organised, which consisted of a series of team-building games in Stadtpark, a large municipal park in Vienna, followed by a go-cart race in-line with the project’s acronym.

7th Board Meeting

For the first time since the last two years, the consortium met in person right before the start of Vienna Talk. The hybrid setting allowed to join the meeting from abroad, too.

Main topics were the final steps for the amendment process and the planning for the last year including outreach activities and publications.

 

6th Board Meeting

For the fourth time the Board Meeting took place virtually. 12 members of the consortium and the coordinator’s team discussed topics like the upcoming puplications, the next technical workshop and the planned outreach activities. The consortium paid also tribute to its member Prof. Armin Kohlrausch who passed away in April 2022.

Technical workshop – ENSTA Paris

ENSTA Paris main entrance
ENSTA Paris main entrance

The next VRACE Technical workshop will take place at ENSTA Paris on May 18-20, 2022.

Provisional Agenda:

  • 9:00-9:15 Welcome and introduction
  • 9:15-10:45 Training related to PhD thesis writing (Marie-Noëlle Delatte)
  • 10:45-11:00 Coffee break
  • 11:00-12:30 Training related to PhD thesis writing (Marie-Noëlle Delatte)
  • 12:30-13:30 Lunch at 10 ter
  • 13:30-15:00 Training related to PhD thesis writing (Marie-Noëlle Delatte)
  • 15:00-15:30 Coffee break
  • 15:30-17:00 Training related to PhD thesis writing (Marie-Noëlle Delatte)
  • Evening Social event in Paris
  • 9:00-10:30 Basics of outdoor noise propagation (David Ecotière)
  • 10:30-11:00 Coffee break
  • 11:00-12:30 Presentation of the open-source software NoiseModelling and demonstrations (Pierre Aumond and/or Nicolas Fortin)
  • 12:30-13:30 Lunch in alvéole 1
  • 13:30-15:00 Auralisation of environmental sources (Julien Maillard)
  • 15:00-15:30 Coffee break
  • 15:30-17:00 Auralisation of environmental sources : demonstrations (Julien Maillard)
  • Evening free
  • 9:00-10:00 Bus from ENSTA Paris to Marcoussis
  • 10:00-12:30 Presentations and discussions with the R&D and Scientific Outreach
  • 12:30-14:00 Lunch at Brasserie la Spatule
  • 14:00-16:15 Visit of L-Acoustics : https://www.l-acoustics.com
    • Production unit LAFR2
    • Listening to L-ISA technology in auditorum
    • Listening to variable curvature line source products
  • 16:15-16:45 Final discussions
  • 16:45-17:30 Bus from Marcoussis to ENSTA Paris

Online workshop – Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e)

The next VRACE online Technical workshop will take place during September 28-29, 2021, organised by the Eindhoven University of Technology

Provisional Agenda:

  • 09:00 am: Opening: Human experiences are multimodal, and the perceptual modalities do not function independently. Examples from Audio-Visual Interaction (Armin Kohlrausch, TU/e, Human Technology Interaction)
  • 10:00 am: A portable window: experiencing architecture and lighting in virtual reality (Kynthia Chamilothori, TU/e, Human Technology Interaction)
  • 11:00 am: Psychoacoustic modelling: Using artificial observers to learn about human listeners (Alejandro Osses Vecchi, ENS, PSL University Paris)
  • 12:00 pm: Lunch Break
  • 13:00 pm: Design of perceptual experiments: Questions and choices (Daniel Oberfeld-Twistel, Universität Mainz)
  • 14:00 pm: Open Science: Just Science done Right (Sascha Spors, Universität Rostock)
  • 15:00 pm: Open Source: Publish your code – it’s good enough (Piotr Majdak, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna)
  • 16.00 pm: End of program
  • 10:00 am: Predicting dialog listener effort for immersive audio (Jeroen Breebaart, Dolby, Sydney)
  • 11:00 am: Perceptually motivated approaches to room simulation and sound reproduction (Steven van de Par, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg)
  • 12:00 pm: Lunch Break
  • 13:00 pm: Haptics – perception and technology (Irene Kuling, TU/e, Mechanical Engineering)
  • 14:00 pm: Acoustic virtual reality as a learning framework for built environment students (Alessia Milo, TU/e, Building physics)
  • 15:00 pm: On the pleasure of being scientist: Finding Wilska (Armin Kohlrausch, TU/e)
  • 16.00 pm: End of workshop

Online workshop at Aalto University

The next VRACE online Technical workshop will take place during March 22-23, 2021, organised by Aalto University with the support of Müller BBM

Provisional Agenda:

  • 09:00 am: Applied room acoustics – how to build a concert hall (E. Mommertz)
  • 10:00 am: Acoustic Enhancement Systems – creating the impossible (G. Engel)
  • 11:00 pm: Room acoustic ear training (W. Lachenmayr)
  • 12:00 pm: Lunch break
  • 13:00 pm: Startups Case 1: Bio-based solutions for indoor acoustics (T. Hänninen, Lumir oy; https://lumir.fi/en/)
  • 14:00 pm: Startups Case 2: Making audio navigation a reality (H. Furtado, Dreamwaves; https://www.dreamwaves.io/)
  • 15:00 pm: Startups Case 3: Acoustic camera and its innovative use (K. Saksela, NL Acoustics; https://nlacoustics.com/)
  • 09:00 am: Measurement of room acoustics & spatial impulse responses (T. Lokki)
  • 10:30 am: Virtual reality tour in Aalto Acoustics Lab (N. Meyer-Kahlen and T. Lokki, http://research.spa.aalto.fi/projects/virtual-acoustics-lab/)
  • 12:00 pm: Lunch Break
  • 13:00 pm: Concert halls & loudspeaker orchestra, results from past 10 years (T. Lokki)
  • 14:00 pm Spatial sound capturing and rendering + SPARTA (L. McCormack)
  • 15:00 pm: Artificial reverberation and FDNs (S. Schlecht)

4th Board Meeting

For the second time the Board Meeting took place virtually. 17 members of the consortium and the coordinator’s team discussed topics like the upcoming mid-term meeting, the planning of the secondments and outreach & dissemination activities. 

Team Building with all VRACE Researchers

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, it was not possible to meet at Facebook Labs in Seattle in April 2020.  So the MDW organized two virtual team buildings to get to know each other better and discuss synergies among the students. They took place on June 25th and October 21st in 2020. Additionally, it is important to meet virtually as most of the students do their research from home during the pandemic.