Blogs

Launch of Sounds of Science and first Workshop

The project Sounds of Science  promotes a community where international research labs and individuals can explain and share their research in an alternative way: through sounds! The project, based on the platform Freesound (created and maintained by the Music Technology Group – MTG - in our department) has been started in the context of the María de Maeztu Research Program, and involves Sonia Espí (MTG), Laura Llaneli (sound artist), Genís Plaja (student in Audiovisual Engineering at UPF) and Aurelio Ruiz. It has also involved the cooperation of Xavier Favory and Eduardo Fonseca (MTG, part of the Freesound Annotator team).

On March 21, Laura and Genís will offer a free 2-hour workshop for anybody interested in getting to know the project and take part in a practical exercise. Would you like to be the next one in explaining your research (life) through sounds? Register for the workshop

Workshop Sounds of Science. March 21st 15:00h. Room 55.309 (Roc Boronat 138, Barcelona)

The project Sounds of Science  promotes a community where international research labs and individuals can explain and share their research in an alternative way: though sounds! This free 2-hour workshop will let the participants (researchers, communication officers) know more about the project and encourage them around sound. The participants will practice listening and recording through exercises around the concept of soundscape, how to use a handy recorder, or how to edit with open source software. Join us!

 

First examples in Sounds of Science

We have started uploading some of the sounds of the instrumentation used by two research groups in our Department. The first enthusiastic researchers hunting sounds in their groups have been Víctor Casamayor (UbicaLab) and Aracelys García Moreno (BERG)

The Biomedical Electronics Research Group (BERG) is focused on bioelectrical phenomena and, in particular, on exploring the use of these phenomena for developing new methods and devices for biomedical applications. Some of the areas of work are neuroprosthetics and electroporation (learn about them here). Unlike other research groups in our Department, focused mostly on software, at BERG they make extensive use of “hard Machines”, making their lab environment different from the standard setting in our department. Examples of tools (and sounds!):

  • Soldering Workstation

 

  • CNC (Computer Numerical Control). A CNC is the automated control of machining tools, and in the BERG it is used to craft electrical hardware for biomedical projects.

 

  • This the sound of an entire working process of a CNC

 

The Ubiquitous Computing Applications Lab (UbicaLab) explores how robots can be used in retail. For instance, for inventorying and locating all the products inside a retail store without the need of installing any fixed infrastructure. The Turtlebot robot designed is able to take inventory of a shop without the need of any prior knowledge and with the minimal set of resources.

But how do the Turtlebots sound? (you can see here how they look like)

  • This is the sound of the Turtlebot robot turning on the antena and connecting it to the server.

 

  • This is an electromagnetic sound of a robot antenna.

 

 

  • This is an electromagnetic sound of a robot CPU

 

At UbiCaLab they also use lot of hardware. Can you identify by their sounds the tools?