HDR scholarship advertising template 2015
Faculty:
Human Sciences
Department:
Linguistics, in collaboration with the National Acoustic
Laboratories (NAL).
Applying virtual sound environments to measure and improve the
performance of cochlear implant recipients in the real world
15/10/2015
The HEARing CRC PhD Scholarship
Project Name:
Closing Date:
Scholarship application
code (to be quoted by
applicants)
Project Description
(suggested maximum
200 words)
Contact Name:
It is very difficult for cochlear implant recipients to understand
speech in complex conditions, where room reverberation and
multiple sound sources interfere with the speech signal of interest.
To date, researchers have had limited success in developing signal
processing techniques that objectively improve speech
understanding under such severe conditions. Even though many of
the proposed algorithms have demonstrated benefits in basic
laboratory settings, outcomes in the real world do not necessarily
match up. This is, at least in part, due to a lack of ecological
relevance (or realism) of both the acoustic environments as well as
the listeners’ tasks used in the laboratory.
This PhD project will first establish a research environment
that combines the loudspeaker-based, 3D sound environment
available at the National Acoustic Laboratories with a fullyprogrammable, real-time cochlear implant research platform. The
resulting research environment will then be used to better
understand the limitations of the signal processing strategies that
are applied in current cochlear implants to improve speech
intelligibility in reverberant multi-source conditions. Based on the
research outcomes, novel signal processing strategies that take
advantage of the different signals arriving at the two ears will be
developed and tested.
The ideal candidate will be an Engineer with an experience and/or
strong interest in hearing devices as well as 3D sound reproduction.
The PhD student will be located and supervised at the National
Acoustic Laboratories, Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie
University, and will be part of a multi-disciplinary group of
researchers and PhD students. The project will be carried out in
close collaboration with Cochlear Pty. Ltd.
Jorg Buchholz
Contact Email:
Jorg.Buchholz@mq.edu.au
Contact Phone:
+61 2 9412 6909
Other Important
information:
The HEARing CRC offers a PhD scholarship valued at the standard APA rate of $25,849 per
annum (2015 rate), indexed annually and tax exempt, for up to 3 years. Please refer to the
Hearing CRC website for further information about the funding body.
Prospective PhD applicants should have completed the equivalent of Macquarie University’s
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HDR scholarship advertising template 2015
Master of Research (MRes) degree, MPhil or other 2 year Masters degree with a major
research component with excellent results. Refer to the HDR Entry Criteria for more
information about this.
Interested applicants should forward a letter of interest and their CV to Dr. Jorg Buchholz
jorg.buchholz@mq.edu.au
Applicants will also need to complete a Macquarie University HDR Candidature and
Scholarship Application form and arrange for two academic referee reports to be submitted to
the Higher Degree Research Office. Refer to:
http://www.hdr.mq.edu.au/information_about/applications for further application
instructions. Macquarie University will advise the successful applicant of entitlements at the
time of scholarship offer. Please quote the scholarship application code ‘Hearing CRC’
on your application.
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