Research Fellow

Full Time Fixed Term for 24 months

Efficient loudness measurement for hearing impaired listeners

This is an exciting opportunity to work on a 2-year project between the Universities of Southampton, University College London and the Eriksholm Research Centre. Through this research centre and the funder (the William Demant Foundation) the project is linked with the hearing aid (Oticon) and hearing diagnostics (Interacoustics) industry.

Excessive loudness perception is widely considered to be the main cause of hearing aid non-use. Our project’s overall aim is to develop, optimise and evaluate novel algorithms for efficiently estimating loudness perception in hearing impaired listeners, using both simple modulated tones and complex real-world sounds. We will develop efficient measurement approaches, based on machine learning methods, to measure individual’s perception of loudness growth in order to enable improved hearing aid fitting procedures based on personalised prescriptions.

The project team is multidisciplinary, including expertise in clinical Audiology, Hearing Science, Machine learning and biomedical signal processing. The team includes Professor Steven Bell and Professor David Simpson from the University of Southampton, Dr Josef Schlittenlacher from University College London, Dr Lars Bramsløw and Dr Johannes Zaar from the Eriksholm Research Centre, Denmark with consultation from Dr Michael Chesnaye.

Successful applicants will have expertise in Audiology or Biomedical Signal Processing research, preferably with experience of working with hearing impaired subjects and using Machine Learning or Data Analysis approaches. Depending on prior experience, tasks will either involve the development and implementation of novel algorithms for the estimation of loudness growth functions and/or testing and optimising these methods in cohorts of normal hearing and hearing-impaired participants.

Whilst the post is for a level 4 Research Fellow, applications will be considered from candidates who are working towards or nearing completion of a relevant PhD qualification. The title of Research Fellow will be applied upon completion of PhD. Prior to the qualification being awarded the title of Senior Research Assistant will be given.

The post is intended to start in the early months of 2025 (depending on the notice period of the successful candidate). The project start is also pending a collaboration agreement being put in place between the centres involved, although this is not envisaged to delay the project.

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