AUT News · Story 04 · 15 September 2020
The sound of a quality education
Doctoral research on classroom acoustics, supervised by Amir
At a glance
- Role
- PhD supervisor
- Location
- AUT, Auckland
- Researcher
- Megan Burfoot, now Lecturer at AUT
- Supervisors
- Dr Amir GhaffarianHoseini, Dr Ali GhaffarianHoseini, Assoc Prof Nicola Naismith
The story
Hearing to learn
AUT News featured PhD researcher Megan Burfoot, supervised by Amir with Ali GhaffarianHoseini and Nicola Naismith, whose research identified poor classroom acoustics as a barrier to educational success.
A responsive wall
She developed a dynamic panel system that detects the type of activity in a classroom and adjusts louvres over sound-absorbing material, so the room can either carry or absorb sound as needed. The system was to be tested in five classrooms against traditional panelling, with results shared with the Ministry of Education.
What came next
Megan represented AUT at the Asia-Pacific Three Minute Thesis competition and is now a Lecturer at AUT.
Evidence
- External
- Internal
See also
