PhD student 6: Nuno Bento
My name is Nuno Bento, and I am from Portugal. I am a biomedical engineer and a licensed airline pilot. After completing my master’s degree, I worked as a freelance machine learning engineer, as an airline pilot, and as a researcher focusing on machine learning applications in healthcare. I am very excited to be part of this amazing project!
My PhD project is “Listening effort characterization during aircraft operations”. Our objective is to understand and quantify listening effort in airline pilots and use it as a way to promote effective communication, situational awareness, and overall performance during flight operations. By analysing the impact of listening effort, we aim to enhance training protocols and safety measures, ensuring that pilots can efficiently process information and make timely decisions.
PhD student 5: Ali Usama Syed
Ali Usama Syed received his B.E. and M.S. in Mechatronics Engineering from Air University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He is focusing on advancing the understanding of auditory perception and cognition in real-world and laboratory settings at Hörzentrum Oldenburg, with enrolment as a PhD student at Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, and Liverpool John Moores University.
Ali’s past research bridges neuroscience, robotics, and algorithmic learning, with a strong emphasis on human-machine interaction and sensory signal processing. His research in the EASYLI focuses on using virtual acoustic environments to simulate real-life listening conditions, aiming to understand the balance between positive and adverse effects of listening effort for hearing-impaired individuals. His work will explore how hearing aids can mitigate these challenges, combining virtual reality, psychophysics, and empirical research to advance both scientific understanding and practical applications.
He has contributed to the academia through numerous high-impact publications and serves as a peer reviewer for leading scientific journals and symposiums. Ali is an active member of several professional societies, including IEEE, euRobotics, the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines Italy (I-RIM), and the Society for Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (SfNIRS).
PhD student 4: Julia Thomas
Julia Thomas has previously studied Hearing Technology and Audiology in Oldenburg, Germany. Her focus within the EASYLI project is to identify individual factors contributing to listening-related fatigue and to evaluate hearing aid interventions in this context. To achieve this, she will start with a qualitative study to identify the individual factors that make people susceptible to listening-related fatigue. This will be followed by a hearing aid intervention that incorporates the knowledge gained about the individual factors.
As the PhD position is a collaboration between different institutions, Julia Thomas is supervised by Prof. Torsten Dau from the Hearing Systems Section at the Technical University of Denmark, Dr. Dorothea Wendt and Dr. Johannes Zaar from the Eriksholm Research Centre, as well as Dr. Rebecca Millman and Prof. Gabrielle Saunders from the Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness at the University of Manchester.
PhD student 3: Johannes Wienen
I have a background in psychology and neuroscience. During my studies, I developed an interest in brain imaging and sensory processing, particularly speech and sound perception.
Within the EasyLi project, I will explore subjective and physiological measures of listening effort and fatigue, focusing on workplace situations. By combining participant ratings with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and pupillometry, we hope to uncover the underlying factors and neural correlates of the value of listening. Our overall aim is to work towards reliable assessments of listening effort and workplace interventions to improve the daily listening experience for people with hearing impairments.
PhD student 2: Eray Özgünay
Eray Özgünay is currently working at Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Oldenburg, focusing on projects that utilize his skills in machine learning and audio signal processing, particularly for improving acoustic technologies in occupational settings. His work at Fraunhofer IDMT is directly linked to his ongoing PhD studies as Marie Curie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg.
Eray’s foundation in this field was developed during his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Bilkent University, extended further during his studies in Music and Acoustic Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, and strengthened by his real-world experience as an Audio Machine Learning Engineering Intern.
At the second part of his PhD, Eray will join CeoTronics AG. Here, he will continue his professional development in the field of audio technology and maintain his contribution to the EASYLI Project.
Away from work, Eray is a music enthusiast who enjoys playing the drums, listening to a wide range of music, and composing his own pieces
PhD student 1: Danaé Krikorian
My project will consist of developing a set of physiological wearables and smartphone apps, known as the EASYLI ambulatory toolbox, for low-burden, multi-day monitoring of listening effort, costs, and benefits in occupational settings. The aim is to assess the value of listening in real-life scenarios, optimizing tools for physiological stress assessment and validating hearing aids as passive sensors.
Before joining EASYLI, I was a student at the University of California, San Diego where I was part of the ELC lab and at the University of Lyon where I investigated the cerebral markers of emotive facial recognition deficits associated with schizophrenia using EEG.