Stop, Hey, What’s That Sound, Everybody Look What’s Goin’ Down - Talk by Dr. Paul Hines

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The IEEE Australia Council's Oceanic Engineering Society along with IEEE QLD Section's Control Systems/Robotics and Automation Society presents a talk by IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Paul Hines, Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America on Thursday 19 October 6.00pm-7.30pm. Details are given below:

Date: Thursday 19 October

Time: 6.00pm - 7.30pm

Venue: Room 50-T105, Hawken Engineering building 50, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD

Title: Stop, Hey, What’s That Sound, Everybody Look What’s Goin’ Down - How Sound and Music Are Used to Find Things in a Dark Ocean

Abstract:
Finding one’s way around in the ocean is not all that different from finding one’s way around a room while blindfolded – in both cases the visible light spectrum just isn’t very effective.  In the ocean, we’ve relied on active sonar to solve this problem since its development 100 years ago; however, it is one thing to receive a sonar echo and know “something” is out there.  It is a much more difficult thing to identify (classify) exactly what that thing is –and this is frequently of critical importance.  Humans on the other hand, have a remarkable ability to aurally discriminate acoustic signals –a dog’s bark from a cat’s purr, for example; or recognizing the difference between the same note being played on a guitar and a grand piano.  This seminar will begin with a brief review of the birth of active sonar. We’ll then examine a few examples of the ear in the context of it’s exceptional ability as a signal processor, and how we can use it to classify sounds.  Then an automatic aural classifier inspired by both musical acoustics and the human ear will be presented, and shown how it discriminates submarines from seamounts or humpback whales from bowhead whales.

Speaker Bio:
Dr. Paul C. Hines was born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada. He attended Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, graduating with a B.Sc. (Hon) in Engineering-Physics, in 1981. He joined Defence R&D Canada, in Dartmouth, in 1981. From 1985-1988, he attended the University of Bath, UK where he received his PhD in Physics. His research on acoustic scattering from ocean boundaries earned him the Chesterman Medal from the University for “Outstanding Research in Physics”. From his return to DRDC in 1988 until his departure in March 2014, he led several research groups, managed a variety of acoustic research projects for both DRDC and the US Office of Naval Research, and served as Canada’s member on NATO’s Scientific Committee of National Representatives (SCNR). He is a seasoned experimentalist and has been chief scientist for several collaborative international research trials. He has published 80 refereed journal and conference publications, and has given over 150 contributed, invited, and plenary lectures at national and international meetings. He currently works as an independent consultant in ocean science and technology. Dr. Hines also holds a senior research post in Dalhousie University’s department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and is an adjunct in the department of Oceanography – where he conducts research and supervises graduate and undergraduate students. During his career he has conducted research in anti-submarine warfare, mine and torpedo countermeasures, rapid environmental assessment, acoustic scattering, sound speed dispersion, vector sensor processing, sonar classification and tracking, continuous active sonar, and the application of aural perception in humans, to target classification in sonar. As well as being a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Ocean Engineering Society, Dr. Hines is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America. When he isn’t doing science he is focusing one of his other passions: family and friends, wine, and music…often all at the same time.

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