Dr. Jonathan Hargreaves
School of Science, Engineering and Environment
Newton Building - Room 106
Office hours: Monday - Friday 9am-5pm
Current positions
Lecturer in Acoustical and Audio Engineering
Biography
Jonathan was awarded an MEng in Engineering & Computing Science from the University of Oxford in 2000 and a PhD in Acoustic Engineering from the University of Salford in 2007, where he remains as a Lecturer in Acoustic and Audio Engineering.
He is best known for his research on novel computational acoustic algorithms, but he also has strong research interests in loudspeaker design and characterisation, material characterisation, and microphone arrays.
He is a member of the IOA Research Coordination Committee and the UK Acoustics Network Special Interest Group for Computational Acoustics. Jonathan has had the pleasure of being involved in a wide variety of public engagement activities, including a number of TV appearances, and is passionate about performing, engineering and enjoying live music. He was awarded the UK Institute of Acoustics’ Tyndall Medal, for outstanding contribution to acoustics research and education, in September 2016.
Areas of research
Computational Acoustics, Boundary Element Method (BEM), Microphone Arrays, Loudspeaker Arrays, Acoustic Material Characterisation, Acoustic Testing of Aerospace Hardware
Areas of supervision
Computational Acoustics, Boundary Element Method (BEM), Microphone Arrays, Loudspeaker Arrays, Acoustic Material Characterisation, Acoustic Testing of Aerospace Hardware
- Programme Leader for MSc Acoustics (postgraduate taught)
- Principles of Acoustics and Vibration (postgraduate taught)
- Computer Simulation for Acoustics (undergraduate and postgraduate taught)
- Measurement, Analysis and Assessment (undergraduate and postgraduate taught)
- Project for MSc Acoustics (postgraduate taught)
I am passionate about pushing new frontiers in Computational Acoustics, especially for Auralisation applications. Such numerical prediction models are at the heart of modern acoustic engineering and are used in a diverse range of applications from refining the acoustic design of classrooms and concert halls to predicting how noise exposure varies through an urban environment. Auralisation is the process of rendering the acoustic features of an environment to be heard by a human subject, allowing you to experience the sound of buildings and spaces before they are built or long after they are lost. It attempts to reproduce exactly what you would hear if you were really there, so sounds should appear to originate from different locations with all the timbral changes, echoes and reverberation you would experience in the real space. Auralisation is fast becoming an extremely important application of acoustic modelling and a highly impactful stakeholder consultation tool, but it places unprecedentedly high demands on the Computational Acoustics algorithms that generate the data it presents to listeners.
Stemming from this core research area, I am also extremely interested in microphone and loudspeaker array techniques, which utilise the same underlying mathematics and are very useful to measure acoustic effects in the highest fidelity, e.g., to allow the creation of “Digital Twins”. And these also have the potential to allow higher fidelity acoustic characterisation of materials, which I have come to realise is a significant that limits accuracy in acoustic simulation. Finally, I have recently been working on acoustic testing of aerospace hardware, notably satellites, which utilises all my skills, knowledge and experience in acoustics, vibroacoustics, computational acoustics, high-power loudspeaker systems and control system theory.
My industrial collaborators include / have included: Arup, KEF, Celestion, RAL Space.
Qualifications
- MEng Hons (Oxon)
- PhD
Memberships
- Member of the UK Institute of Acoustics (MIOA)
- Member of the IOA Research Coordination Committee
- Member of the leadership team for the UK Acoustics Network Special Interest Group for Computational Acoustics
- Member of the European Acoustical Association Technical Committee for Computational Acoustics
- Member of the Acoustical Society of America
- Member of the European Space Agency Working Group for Direct Field Acoustics Noise (DFAN) Testing