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RESEARCH FELLOWS IN IMMERSIVE AUDIO TECHNOLOGY
University of Surrey (UK)
Location: Guildford (35 minutes by fast train from London)
Salary: £36,024 p.a. - £41,732 p.a. (plus yearly uplifts subject to performance review, up to a maximum of £44,263 p.a. if appointed at top end of the scale)
Post Type: Full Time
Closing Date: 23.59 hours BST on 15 January 2024
Applications are invited for two full-time Research Fellows to be based in the Institute of Sound Recording (IoSR) at the University of Surrey and to work on the EPSRC project CIAT ("Challenges in Immersive Audio Technologies") conducted in collaboration with King's College London, and the University of Southampton. There are 6 positions available, two at each institution. Candidates are encouraged to apply for multiple posts if they feel that their experience is well aligned with the positions.
The proposed start date for the posts is the 1st March 2024, but it can be deferred, if required. The posts will be offered on a full-time fixed-term contract for 36 months or until 28th February 2027 (whichever comes sooner).
Immersive technologies will transform not only how we communicate and experience entertainment, but also our experience of the physical world, from shops to museums, cars to classrooms. Despite significant progress in the computer vision community, long-standing fundamental challenges adversely impact on audio technologies, preventing immersion into realistic acoustic scenes in which the audience feels transported to an alternate reality.
Specifically, state-of-the-art immersive audio technologies (a) suffer from computational requirements preventing real-time creation of shared, interactive immersive audio experiences, and (b) are limited in their ability to efficiently deliver shared, high-quality auditory experiences to multiple listeners. CIAT's vision is to transform the state of the art by developing a principled, scalable and reconfigurable framework for capturing and reproducing only perceptually relevant information.
Successful candidates will gain extensive opportunities for:
- Collaboration and networking between the three partner institutions and with external academic collaborators, stakeholders, and industry partners, including Stanford CCRMA (US), BBC (UK), SONOS (UK), National Gallery (UK);
- Travel, including international conferences and workshops, as well as extended research visits at the partner institutions and Stanford CCRMA;
- Access to state-of-the-art research facilities and resources, e.g., the IoSR-hosted reference listening room, and the ISVR-hosted anechoic chamber.
At Surrey we are recruiting in two areas:
- (A): Immersive Audio Reproduction, which will involve developing novel psychoacoustic-based technologies for 3D sound reproduction, and
- (B): Perceptual Evaluations, which will involve exploring human auditory perception and designing and executing subjective listening evaluations.
The successful applicants will have a range of skills, including some of the following: strong, independent research skills; a PhD, or close to completion, in engineering, computer science or related area; an excellent (A) signal processing and/or (B) acoustics background; experience with (A) developing new immersive audio reproduction methods and/or with (B) designing and executing formal listening experiments.
The IoSR is home to the Tonmeister degree in Music and Sound Recording, which produced a stream of highly successful graduates (including two Oscar winners, ten Grammy winners, and twelve BAFTA winners), and is a leading centre for research in acoustic engineering.
We offer a generous pension, relocation assistance where appropriate , flexible working options including job share and blended home/campus working locations (dependent on work duties), access to world-class leisure facilities on campus, a range of travel schemes and supportive family friendly benefits including an excellent on-site nursery.
The University of Surrey is committed to providing an inclusive environment that offers equal opportunities for all. We place great value on diversity and are seeking to increase the diversity within our community. Therefore, we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups, such as people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and people with disabilities.
To apply go to: https://jobs.surrey.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?id=13737.
Informal enquiries may be made to the Surrey project lead, Dr Enzo De Sena e.desena@surrey.ac.uk
