The conference will give an overview some hot research topics in Acoustics. One of the most challenging problems in acoustics is the discrimination of the contribution of different sources to an acoustic field. This has led to the development of different techniques based on microphone arrays in order to understand the behavior of a complex sound source. In the last few years, the development of new Acoustic Vector Sensors (AVS) has brought new perspectives in the detection and localization of sound sources. Acoustic Vector Sensors are sensible to both, sound pressure and particle velocity, and then information of the acoustic energy flow can be obtained. Information of the Direction Of Arrival of the sound can be obtained with simple processing of the signal provided by the sensors. In real applications the contributions of several sources might be identified: the application of Blind Source Separation techniques to the signals detected by AVS are also one the hot topics in Acoustic. In building acoustics, the separation of the contribution of different transmission paths has also been a challenge. Nowadays, it is possible to estimate the acoustic insulation of a building by means of the evaluation of the contribution of each possible transmission path, but further research is needed to characterize the sound transmission in complex and light structures.
Manuel A. Sobreira Seoane earned his MSc degree and PhD in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Vigo in 1991 and 1996, respectively. Between 1992 and 1996 he taught Room Acoustics, Noise Control and Musical Acoustics at the “Escuela Universitaria de Ingeniería de Telecomunicación de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid”. In 1996 he became an Associate Professor at the Universidad de Vigo. His research interests are focused on Applied Acoustics, mainly on the implementation of pattern recognition and source separation, and on the assessment of measurement uncertainty in acoustics through the use of numerical methods. He teaches Advanced Acoustics, Noise Measurement Techniques and Legislation, and Room Acoustics as part of the Degree in Telecommunications Engineering; and Professional Software in Acoustics, as part of the Master’s Degree in Industrial Mathematics.