COURSES

[14th November, 2023] 

The Centre for Acoustic Signal Processing Research (CASPR) at Aalborg University is happy to announce the 2024 CASPR Course on Signal Processing for Hearing Assistive Devices

Signal processing for hearing assistive devices – Aalborg University (aau.dk)

The course will be in-person (physical face-to-face) and take place at the AAU Campus in Copenhagen, Denmark, during three consecutive days. Online participation will not be possible. The three days will cover teaching, presentations, hands-on practical training, and networking. A diploma will be issued on successful completion of the 3-day program.

As an inspiration and for your further development, CASPR provides a “Research talks on emerging technologies” event the following two days after the course, where participation is optional. University researchers will give the talks – furthermore, you will have the opportunity to network with other participants and experts in sound, signal processing, and machine learning.

Brief course outline:

Hearing assistive devices (HADs) are ubiquitous. They include, for example, devices such as headsets for speech communication in noisy environments (airplane crews, emergency/rescue teams, combat soldiers, police forces, etc.), headsets for office use, gaming, etc., and hearing care systems, e.g., hearing aids and cochlear implants.

The course consists of lectures and hands-on exercises, allowing the participants to understand in-depth the technical problems related to HADs and their potential solutions. The multi-disciplinary course focuses on applying theoretical results to real-world problems and practical do’s and don’ts.

The first part of the course is a short introductory part, which lays the foundation for the rest of the course, covering fundamental topics such as auditory perception (normal and impaired hearing) and a discussion of the basic principles of HADs.

The second part provides an overview of fundamental signal processing problems encountered in HADs, and an in-depth treatment of state-of-the-art solutions. These include beamforming and noise reduction methods, direction-of-arrival estimation, voice activity detection, feedback control, hearing loss compensation, etc. Furthermore, an overview is given of important methodologies for evaluating HADs related to speech intelligibility and listening effort.

The last two – optional – days are devoted to lectures on emerging technologies for hearing assistive devices. These include deep learning based methods for multi-modal HAD processing, including EEG and sound, methods for listening effort and attention decoding, generative speech enhancement methods, hearing loss compensation methods, self-supervised deep learning methods, HADs involving microphones outside the ear of the user, and methods for low-latency enhancement and communication.

While the course focuses on applications, many of the discussed techniques are general and find use in the much broader field of general sound processing.

Organizers:

  • Prof. Jesper Jensen, Aalborg University and Oticon
  • Prof. Jan Østergaard, Aalborg University.
  • Prof. Zheng-Hua Tan, Aalborg University.

Dates for the mandatory course part (2024 CASPR Course on Signal Processing for Hearing Assistive Devices):
Monday 26th – Wednesday 28th, February 2024.

Dates for the additional optional part (Emerging Topics in Signal Processing for Hearing Assistive Devices):
Thursday 29th February – Friday 1st March 2024.

Place: Copenhagen, AAU Campus. A.C. Meyers Vænge 15, 2450 Copenhagen.

Registration fee (industrial participants): 13.748 DKK / 1845 Euros (including lunch).

Registration is now open: https://www.es.aau.dk/education/education/signal-processing-for-hearing-assistive-devices

Max number of participants: 30

Course Teaser (PDF): Signal Processing for Hearing Assistive Devices

Lecturers:

  • Prof. Steven van de Par, Oldenburg University
  • Prof. Jesper Jensen, Aalborg University and Oticon
  • Prof. Zheng-Hua Tan, Aalborg University
  • Dr. Meng Guo, Oticon.
  • Dr. Robert Rehr, Oticon.
  • Dr. Michael Syskind Pedersen, Oticon.
  • Dr. Dorothea Wendt, Eriksholm Research Center.
  • Postdoc Payam Shahsavari, Aalborg University
  • PhD student Vasudha Sathyapriyan, Aalborg University and Oticon
  • PhD student Andreas Fuglsig, Aalborg University
  • PhD student Peter Leer Bysted, Aalborg University
  • PhD student Philippe Gonzalez , Technical University of Denmark
  • PhD student Asjid Tanveer, Aalborg University
  • PhD student Sangeeth G. Jayaprakash, Aalborg University
  • PhD student Holger S. Bovbjerg, Aalborg University
  • PhD student Mohammad Bokaei, Aalborg University

Prerequisite for participation:
The course requires a background in signal processing and statistics. It is expected that you have qualifications corresponding to a M.Sc. in e.g., signal processing.

We expect the participants in the course to consist of R&D engineers from industry together with PhD students from universities.

Preparation

Before the course starts, you will receive a link to the literature. It is not mandatory to prepare before the course. The course will primarily be in English.

Contact

For further information about the course, contact:

  • Jan Østergaard (jo@es.aau.dk)
  • Jesper Jensen (jje@es.aau.dk)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[29th January, 2021] 

CASPR Summer School on Signal Processing for Hearing Assistive Devices


Summer School on Signal Processing for Hearing Assistive Devices Teaser 2021

CASPR Summer School – May 2021

Building on the success of our previous Centre for Acoustic Signal Processing (CASPR) Winter School in 2017, we are happy to announce that there will be a CASPR Summer School in May 2021. The Summer School is also open for Industry.

Hearing assistive devices (HADs) are ubiquitous. They include, for example, devices such as headsets for speech communication in noisy environments (air plane crews, emergency/rescue teams, combat soldiers, police forces, etc.), headsets for office use, gaming, etc., and hearing care systems, e.g. hearing aids and cochlear implants.

The course consists of lectures and hands-on exercises, which allow the course participants to understand in-depth the technical problems related to HADs and their potential solutions. The course is multi-disciplinary, with a focus on application of theoretical results to real-world problems, and practical do’s and don’ts.

The course has three main parts. The first part is a short introductory part, which lays the foundation for the rest of the course, covering fundamental topics such as auditory perception (normal and impaired hearing) and a discussion of the basic principles of HADs. The second part provides an overview of fundamental signal processing problems encountered in HADs, and an in-depth treatment of state-of-the-art solutions. These include methods for beamforming and noise reduction, direction-of-arrival estimation, voice activity detection, feedback control, hearing loss compensation, etc. Furthermore, an overview is given of methodologies for evaluating HADs with a particular focus on methods for intelligibility assessment and estimation. The third part of the course presents emerging technologies for HADs, including techniques for processing of speech in noise, audio-visual signal processing, intelligibility prediction, EEG-based techniques, methods for assessing listening effort, and novel methods for a more personalized hearing aid prescription. While the course focuses on HAD applications, many of the discussed techniques are general and find use in the much broader field of general sound processing.

The course also bridges the gap between theoretical background and practical/robust application. The course is a one-week concentrated course to be held during the Summer 2021. The course involves course preparation (approximately 1 ECTS), course presence (1 ECTS), assignment finalization and hand-in (1 ECTS)

Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of statistical signal processing, stochastic processes, and linear algebra. Familiarity/handy with Matlab/Python. The course assignment / hands-on exercise will be given in Matlab.

Organizer: Professor Jesper Jensen, AAU and Oticon.

Lecturers (Preliminary program):
Prof. Jesper Jensen, AAU.
Prof. Jan Østergaard, AAU.
Prof. Zheng-Hua Tan, AAU.
Dr. Meng Guo, Oticon (invited talk).
Dr. Asger Heidemann Andersen, Oticon (invited talk).
Dr. Carina Graversen, Eriksholm (invited talk).
Dr. Johannes Zaar, Eriksholm (invited talk).
Dr. Dorothea Wendt, Erikshom (invited talk).
Andreas Fuglsig, RTX and AAU.
Poul Hoang, Oticon and AAU
Payam Shahsavari, AAU.
Morten Østergaard Nielsen, AAU.
Dr. Daniel Michelsanti, AAU.
Dr. Ivan Lopez Espejo, AAU.

ECTS: 3.0

Time: May 17-21, 2021.

Place: Aalborg University

Number of seats: 30

Deadline: 3 weeks prior to start

The Summer School will be held physically in Aalborg, and it will not be possible to participate online. Due to the covid-19 situation, we restrict the number of participants to at most 30. Only if  the covid-19 situation prevents the CASPR Summer School from being held physically, an online version will be established. A hybrid (part of the audience physically present and part of the audience online) will NOT be offered.

To register for the Winter School please use the following link: (CASPR) Summer School (2021)

For more information about the Summer School, feel free to contact the organizers:
Prof. Jesper Jensen (jje@es.aau.dk), Prof. Zheng-Hua Tan (zt@es.aau.dk), and Prof. Jan Østergaard (jo@es.aau.dk).

[15th December, 2016] 

Winter School on Signal Processing for Hearing Assistive Devices


We will be organizing a Winter School on Signal Processing for Hearing Assistive Devices at Aalborg University, November 6 – 10, 2017.

Description: Hearing assistive devices are ubiquitous. They include, for example, devices such as headsets for speech communication in noisy environments (air plane crews, emergency/rescue teams, combat soldiers, police forces, etc.), and hearing care systems, e.g. hearing aids and cochlear implants. This winter school consists of lectures and exercises, to emphasize the key points of the lectures. The school has four parts. The first part lays the foundation for the rest, covering fundamental topics such as auditory perception (normal and impaired hearing) and a discussion of the basic principles of hearing assistive devices. The second part provides an overview of basic signal processing problems encountered in hearing assistive devices, and an in-depth treatment of state-of-the-art solutions. These include methods for beamforming and noise reduction, dereverberation, feedback cancellation, hearing loss compensation, etc. Furthermore, an overview is given of methodologies for evaluating hearing assistive devices with a particular focus on methods for intelligibility assessment and estimation. The third part of the school focuses on cochlear implants and diagnostic methods, e.g., methods for screening of hearing in newborns. Finally, the fourth part of the school presents emerging technologies for hearing assistive devices, including machine learning techniques for speech denoising, and signal processing techniques using the emerging wireless infrastructure.

Confirmed keynote lecturers at the winter school:
Dr. James Harte, Interacoustics (invited talk – industry )
Dr. Søren Riis, Oticon Medical (invited talk – industry)
Prof. Thomas Lunner, Linköping University (invited talk – university, industry)
Prof. Mike Brookes, Imperial College London (invited talk – university)
Assoc. Professor Emanuël Habets, Int. Audio Labs Erlangen (invited talk – university)

Local lecturers (who are also the main organizers) at Aalborg University:
Assoc. Prof. Jan Østergaard, Aalborg University
Assoc. Prof. Zheng-Hua Tan, Aalborg University
Prof. Jesper Jensen, Aalborg University

The course schedule (which is subject to change) is available here: Course Schedule

For more information please contact the organisers.

To register for the Winter School please use the following link: https://phd.moodle.aau.dk/course/view.php?id=792

Important: The link to payment can be found under the section Course Fee in the above link.


CASPR related courses at Aalborg University

Members of CASPR take part in teaching courses that are relevant to the scientific disciplines of CASPR:

  • Machine Learning (Master and PhD courses)
  • Deep Learning (PhD course)
  • Information Theory (Master and PhD courses)
  • Array Processing (Master course)
  • Optimization (Master and PhD courses)
  • Platforms and Methods for Multimodal System Architectures (Master course)
  • Signal Processing for Hearing Assistive Devices (PhD course and Winter School)