Listening to the City: Edge AI and Acoustic Intelligence for Sustainable Urban Environments

#learning #government #control #deep-learning #mitigation #artificial-intelligence #communication #machine-learning #processing
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Abstract:

While environmental science often focuses on visual data, the acoustic environment is a critical, yet invisible, dimension of urban health and sustainability. This talk explores the intersection of Signal Processing, Edge AI, and Environmental Science, drawing on recent real-world deployments in Singapore. We will discuss the challenges of continuously monitoring environmental noise in dense urban settings and how Edge AI devices, which are running on lightweight, efficient Deep Learning models, are solving these problems. From classifying urban soundscapes in real-time to enabling energy-efficient Active Noise Control (ANC) for natural ventilation, we demonstrate how "listening" to our environment provides actionable data for trustworthy decision systems and healthier cities.

Biography:

Woon-Seng Gan is a Professor of Audio Engineering and Director of the Smart Nation TRANS Lab at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, where he leads efforts to translate AI research into real-world deployments. His research bridges the physical world and signal processing, with a specific focus on active noise control (ANC) and spatial audio, resulting in over 400 publications, eight patents, and three co-authored books. A Fellow of the AES, and IET, he was named an IEEE Signal Processing Society Distinguished Lecturer in 2023 and received the prestigious 2017 APSIPA Sadaoki Furui Prize Paper Award for his work on ANC. In addition to serving as the President of the Asia Pacific Signal and Information Processing Association (APSIPA) and Technical Program Chair for International Conference on Acoustic, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP)2022, Prof. Gan actively advises government agencies on environmental noise sensing and mitigation, and has had his work featured in global media outlets such as the New York Times, CBS, and CNN.

 


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  • The Australian National University
  • 35 Science Road
  • Acton, Australian Capital Territory
  • Australia 2601
  • Building: Birch Building - Seminar Room 2.02
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  • Co-sponsored by Daniel Shi
  • Starts 24 June 2026 02:00 PM UTC
  • Ends 12 August 2026 02:00 PM UTC
  • No Admission Charge