From classroom to laboratory: student projects at Hearing Valley

In addition to its collaboration with companies and research activities, Hearing Valley offers students unique opportunities to develop their expertise through practical projects. To date, Hearing Valley has been involved in three student projects. These projects have enabled students to apply the knowledge and skills gained during their studies in a real-world setting by utilizing Hearing Valley’s high-quality research laboratory and its versatile equipment, conveniently located on the premises of the University of Eastern Finland.

One of the students who completed a project at Hearing Valley is Ville Kallinen, a student of Engineering Physics at the University of Eastern Finland. He became interested in the university’s opportunity to participate in an industry-oriented project and joined a project carried out in collaboration with Genelec.

In his project, Kallinen investigated the optimal placement of subwoofer loudspeakers in the Hearing Laboratory using simulation methods. The objective was to identify a speaker configuration that would provide listeners with the most even soundscape possible.

To build the simulation model, Kallinen first defined the dimensions of the Hearing Laboratory, the current speaker locations, the listening position, and the absorption coefficients of different surface materials in the modeling software. Based on measurements conducted at Hearing Valley, he created a digital model of the laboratory and simulated various speaker placement configurations.

Afterwards, Kallinen used the laboratory’s multichannel microphone system to evaluate how accurately the simulation results reflected real acoustic conditions. The loudspeakers were positioned according to the simulation’s recommendations, and the results were validated through measurements. Finally, Kallinen had the opportunity to present the results of his work at Genelec.

“The project provided an opportunity to gain practical work experience in an industry-oriented environment. Meetings with Genelec and a factory visit offered valuable insights into the business world and the opportunity to build professional networks,” Kallinen explains.

Kallinen also encourages other students to participate in similar projects. “The experience gained from the project will certainly be beneficial in the future,” Kallinen says.