The Institute of Acoustics (IOA) London Branch held its first meeting of the year at London South Bank University (LBSU) on 17th January 2024. Two of the best 2022-23 IOA Diploma student projects at LSBU were shortlisted to present their final projects as part of the annual NTI-Audio sponsored best final project award competition. The students shortlisted and their topics were: Rebecca Page on Impact Noise and Vibration Induced by Deadlifts and Rhiannon Hawkins on Acoustic design of heritage school buildings

Sponsor of the award  NTI-Audio UK Managing director Charles Greene and LSBU IOA Diploma course director Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina presented the award to the joyous winner: Rebecca Page. 

This year’s event has marked the sixth anniversary of this successful award. The hybrid meeting was well attended by a mix of senior consultants, academics, acoustics students and alumni. In the presentation speech, Charles mentioned the consistent high quality of the projects entered to this award r

On 11th May 2023 Dr Haydar Aygun  gave a talk at the Institute of Acoustics (IOA) May 2023 London Branch held at London South Bank University.  The talk was delivered in person and simultaneously streamed online to a remote audience. Haydar’s talk was entitled Acoustic wave propagation through natural and conventional porous materials and covered his past and present research work around vibration, sound radiation, and acoustic attenuation mechanism of sound absorbing materials.

On 23rd of September 2022, a panel of representatives of the Institute of Acoustics (IOA), visited LSBU  to complete re-accreditation on the IOA Diploma of Acoustics and Noise Control and Certificate of Competence of Environmental Noise measurements  (CCENM) courses. The CCENM courses have been run by The School of The Built Environment and Architecture since 2013.

The director for those courses at LSBU, Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina, organised and led the visit with the assistance of the teaching team and School of BEA management. The panel were highly satisfied with the overall running of the courses.

We have recently received the confirmation that LSBU has gained re-accreditation to run those two prestigious courses for another 5 years. This is the third time that LSBU is accredited led by the courses’ owner. Well done Luis and the teaching team on a job well done!

Congratulations to Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina who has become an external examiner of the Masters programme in Applied Acoustics at University of Derby (UK). Dr Gomez-Agustina was invited to apply for the position, as he is known to the University of Derby Acoustics team from the courses re-accreditation carried out by the Institute of Acoustics (IOA) in 2019, in which he was co-lead of the accreditation panel.

This appointment will provide an opportunity to learn from good practice implemented at other leading universities. The new role will also help to strengthen the links between LSBU and the University of Derby and stimulate future teaching, enterprise and research collaborations.

On 19 February 2020 Professor Geoff Leventhall presented at the Keyworth Lecture theatre. He delivered a fascinating talk entitled “I can still hear it and it’s making me ill”.

The presentation discussed and contested challenging aspects of noise perception and associated annoyance of very quiet noises and even non-existent noises. It considered that multiple external influences and factors could promote adverse responses to noise. Controversial health effects and disturbance from wind turbine low frequency noise were also covered.

Professor Leventhall was Head of Institute of Environmental Engineering and reader in Acoustics at London South Bank University. He was also president of the Institute of Acoustics (IOA). He is a world-leading expert in low frequency noise and infrasounds and is currently a consultant in Noise and Vibration.

The audience valued and appreciated the insights put forward by Professor Leventhall, judging by the numerous comments and questions posed to him.