Health Science: Fully Funded Swansea University PhD: An investigation of modern technology in hearing aids: the benefits of binaural beamforming to spatial hearing

10 Jan 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

Swansea University

Department

Central

Research Field

Other
Medical sciences

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

United Kingdom

Application Deadline

4 Mar 2024 - 23:59 (Europe/London)

Type of Contract

Other

Job Status

Full-time

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Funding providers: Swansea University's Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Science

Subject areas: Audiology, Psychoacoustics, Signal Processing, Psychology, Engineering, Computer Science 

Project start date: 

• 1 April 2024 (Enrolment open from mid–March)

Project supervisors:

• Dr Barry Bardsley ([email protected] )
• Professor Andrea Tales
• Professor Stephen Johnson

Aligned programme of study: PhD in Health Science

Mode of study: Full-time

Project description: 

The Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Science is pleased to offer a fully-funded scholarship for a full-time doctoral student.

The scholarship includes tuition fees and a stipend – reviewed annually at the UKRI standard rate  – and a £1,000 annual training allowance to support immersive training experiences, conference attendance, engagement with industry and international collaborative opportunities.  

The scholarship is offered for a maximum period of three years; students are expected to submit their theses within this timescale.  

Hearing loss is common in the UK, with one in five of the population living with some form of hearing impairment. Hearing aids (HAs) provide a partial solution to the problem, but the performance of the HA when the wearer is in a noisy environment is often lower than expected, because of a poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).  

One of the best strategies used for improving the SNR is a directional microphone (DM), which provides reduced sensitivity for sounds from behind and to the side of the listener. Modern developments have resulted in two HAs being able to communicate with each other and improve this directional sensitivity (referred to as binaural beamforming, BB). In laboratory settings BB reveals significant benefit in speech intelligibility in noise, but this is not reflected in the patient reported outcomes.  Why is there a discrepancy between these two measures on BB performance and how may this inform device/software design? Through simulation (headphones) and more realistic means (loudspeakers), measures of spatial hearing performance of HA users, using different DM settings, will be investigated. This gives Improved intelligence on barriers to BB benefits and target improved performance of HAs users in complex listening environments. 

Informal scholarship enquiries from applicants to prospective supervisors – prior to the application deadline – are warmly encouraged; please direct these to the relevant member/s of faculty staff.  

Requirements

Research Field

Other

Education Level

Bachelor Degree or equivalent

Research Field

Medical sciences

Education Level

Bachelor Degree or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

Candidates must hold an undergraduate degree at 2.1 level and a master’s degree. Alternatively, applicants with a UK first class honours degree (or Non-UK equivalent as defined by Swansea University) not holding a master’s degree, will be considered on an individual basis. Please note that you may need to provide evidence of your English Language proficiency.  

Specific Requirements

Due to funding restrictions, this scholarship is open to applicants eligible to pay tuition fees at the UK rate only, as defined by UKCISA regulations . 

Additional Information
Benefits

This scholarship covers the full cost of UK tuition fees and an annual stipend of £18,622.

Additional research expenses will also be available. 

Eligibility criteria

Candidates must hold an Upper Second Class (2.1) honours degree. If you are eligible to apply for the scholarship (i.e. a student who is eligible to pay the UK rate of tuition fees) but do not hold a UK degree, you can check our comparison entry requirements. Please note that you may need to provide evidence of your English Language proficiency.  

Alternatively, applicants with a UK first class honours degree (or Non-UK equivalent as defined by Swansea University) not holding a master’s degree, will be considered on an individual basis. 

Due to funding restrictions, this scholarship is open to applicants eligible to pay tuition fees at the UK rate only, as defined by UKCISA regulations . 

Selection process

Please visit our website for more information.

Website for additional job details

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate/scholarships/research/health-science-su-…

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Swansea University

Country

United Kingdom

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate/scholarships/research/health-science-su-…

Contact

State/Province

Swansea

City

Swansea

Website

http://www.swansea.ac.uk

Street

Singleton Park

Postal Code

SA2 8PP

STATUS: EXPIRED