Current members
Staff members
Prof Yusuke Hioka
BE, ME, PhD (Keio University, Japan), PGCertTertTchg(Canterbury), SMIEEE
Yusuke received his B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees in engineering in 2000, 2002, and 2005 from Keio University, Yokohama, Japan. From 2005 to 2012, he was with the NTT Cyber Space Laboratories (now NTT Media Intelligence Laboratories), Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT). From 2010 to 2011, he was also a visiting researcher at Victoria University of Wellington. In 2013 he returned to New Zealand and was appointed as a Lecturer at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch. Then in 2014, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering as a Senior Lecturer in Mechatronics where he is currently an Associate Processor and mainly teaches electronics and computer engineering courses for the Mechatronics programme. He is also the Co-director (Research) of the Acoustics Research Centre at the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Full CV is available here.
Link to the University of Auckland Directory is here.
Research
Since he was studying towards his PhD he specialised in audio and acoustic signal processing particularly focusing on microphone arrays which is a technology that enables us to emphasise sound arriving from particular directions/locations.
After he received his degrees, he worked in industry for nearly 8 years where he had many opportunities to utilise his expertise in developing commercial products as well as growing his academic career. Because of this industrial experience the majority of his research focuses on problems in the real world. He always trys to invent technologies that are practically effective and feasible but are also supported by theoretical principles. Some of his inventions have been adopted in commercial products which have been attracting many users/customers’ interests.
Besides audio and acoustic signal processing, recently he is also interested in wider fields related to sound such as speech, audiology, psychoacoustics and linguistics.
Areas of expertise
- Array signal processing
- Audio/acoustic/speech signal processing
- Room acoustics
- Psychology of hearing
Committees/Professional groups/Services
- Senior member of IEEE.
- Commitee member of IEEE NZ Signal Processing / Information Theory Chapter
- 2015, 2022 -: Vice Chair
- 2016 – 2021: Chair
- Member of ASNZ (Acoustical Society of New Zealand).
- Member of ASJ (Acoustical Society of Japan).
Dr. Justine Hui
BE(Hons), BA(Hons) (University of Auckland, New Zealand), PhD (Sophia University, Japan)
Justine obtained her conjoint BE(Hons) in Computer Systems Engineering and BA(Hons) (BA in Linguistics and Japanese and BA(Hons) in Asian Studies) at the University of Auckland. This was followed by several years in industry as a software developer at IBM (project at Air NZ), while she studied ME with Dr. Catherine Watson on speech synthesis. She received her PhD at Sophia University, Japan, at the Speech Communication Lab under Prof. Takayuki Arai on the relationship between hearing deficits and speech and melody perception..
Research
After her PhD, she came back to Auckland as a postdoctoral research fellow (PI: A/P Yusuke Hioka) examining how language familiarity affects our understanding of speech in different acoustic environments while being involved in the MPAi (Māori pronunciation aid) project with A/P Catherine Watson, Dr. Peter Keegan and Dr. Danielle Lottridge, on developing a computer interface based application for users to learn and improve their Māori vowel pronunciation by getting real-time visual feedback.
Her main research interests include speech perception and production of hearing impaired listeners and non-native speakers, hearing assistive technologies and phonetics.
She is currently a lecturer at the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering.
Postgraduate student members
Nicholas Wernherne Eng
BE(Hons) (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Nicholas received his B.E. in Mechatronics Engineering in 2018 from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. From 2018, he is pursuing his PhD degree in Mechatronics Engineering with the University of Auckland Scholarship, specialising in speech and acoustic signal processing.
Research
Nicholas’ PhD research focuses on speech enhancement for rapid speech prototyping, under the supervision of Associate Professor Yusuke Hioka and Associate Professor Catherine Watson.
Yonghui Tao
BE(Hons) (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Yonghui received her B.E. in Mechatronics Engineering in 2020 from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. From 2021, she is pursuing her PhD degree in Mechatronics Engineering with the Callaghan Innovation R&D Fellowship Grant and sponsorship from FlexWare Ltd, specialising in edge AI for bioacoustics.
Research
Yonghui’s PhD research focuses on bird sound classification algorithms on resource-constrained embedded devices for remote and isolated environments, under the supervision of Associate Professor Yusuke Hioka and Professor Stephen Marsland.
Clara Zhang
BE(Hons) (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Clara received her B.E. in Mechatronics Engineering in 2021 at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. From 2021, she is pursuing her PhD degree in Mechatronics Engineering, specializing in speech and acoustic signal processing.
Research
Jin Xuan Teh
MEng(Hons) (University of Southampton, United Kingdom)
Jin Xuan received his M.Eng in Mechatronics Engineering in 2018 from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom. From 2019 to 2022, Jin Xuan was a Senior Operations Modelling Engineer at Micron Semiconductor in Singapore. Since 2023, he has been pursuing his PhD degree in Mechatronics Engineering with the Acoustics Research Centre Scholarship, specializing in acoustic signal processing.
Research
Jin Xuan’s PhD research focuses on acoustic signal processing in conjunction with aeroacoustics to extract high-quality audio recordings from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), under the supervision of Associate Professor Yusuke Hioka and Associate Professor Michael Kingan.
Zengkun Liu
BE (Shandong University of Science and Technology), ME (University of Electronic Science and Technology)
Zengkun Liu received his B.E. degree from Shandong University of Science and Technology in 2015 and his M.E. degree from University of Electronic Science and Technology in 2018. Starting from 2020, he is pursuing his PhD in mechatronics engineering, specializing in knowledge graph for industrial maintenance.
Research
Zengkun’s PhD research focuses on knowledge graph construction and knowledge-data fusion algorithms for intelligent maintenance automation under the supervision of Associate Professor Kean AW and Dr. Justine Hui.
Minjung Kim
BE(Hons) (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Minjung received his BE (Hons). in Mechatronics Engineering in 2021 from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. From 2021, he is pursuing his PhD degree in Mechatronics Engineering, specialising in AI for time series analysis and machine prognostics.
Research
Minjung’s PhD research focuses on artificial intelligence for general-purpose time-series representation learning and interpretable/domain-agnostic time series analysis, under the joint supervision of Associate Professor Yusuke Hioka and Professor Michael Witbrock (Computer Science).
Alyssa D’Souza
BE(Hons) (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Alyssa completed her B.E. in mechatronics engineering in 2022 at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is currently studying towards her master’s degree under the supervision of Associate Professor Yusuke Hioka.
Research
Exploring the occurrence of the Lombard effect using Simulation-Based Prediction Modelling.
Geoffrey Zhu
BE(Hons)/BSc (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Geoffrey received his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering in 2022 at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. From 2023, he is pursuing his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering, the Aerodynamics and Aeroacoustics of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle propellers.
Research
Geoffrey’s PhD research focuses on the noise generation mechanisms of coaxial contra-rotating rotors, under the supervision of Associate Professor Michael Kingan and Associate Professor Yusuke Hioka.
Epri Wahyu Pratiwi
MSc (National Central University, Taiwan)
Epri currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Auckland, investigating listening effort in individuals with bimodal and bilateral cochlear implants. Prior to this, she earned a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from National Central University (NCU) in Taiwan, focusing on enhancing music perception on different cochlear implant coding strategies, and a Bachelor’s in Engineering Physics from Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember Surabaya (ITS) in Indonesia.
Research
As a Research Assistant at Academia Sinica in Taipei (2019-2023), she implemented speech enhancement for bimodal cochlear implants simulation and developed a deep learning-based music quality assessment for hearing aids. Earlier, at the Physics Laboratory of the Engineering Faculty, International University Liaison Indonesia (IULI) in Jakarta (2016-2019), she assisted students in physics experiments and basic electrical, emphasizing theoretical understanding and design approaches.
As the founder of Climate Rangers Jakarta since May 2017, she work to provide young people with a better understanding of climate change in Jakarta.
Undergraduate student members
Luke Simpson
BE Final Year Project
Development of a smart system to identify, locate, and monitor the usage of equipment in noisy workshops
Supervisor: Yusuke Hioka
Jack Towers
BE Final Year Project
Development of a smart system to identify, locate, and monitor the usage of equipment in noisy workshops
Supervisor: Yusuke Hioka
Dhruv Jagmohan
BE Final Year Project
Accuracy of acoustic virtual reality for replicating speech perception in real world
Supervisor: Yusuke Hioka
Hong Kit Li
BE Final Year Project
Accuracy of acoustic virtual reality for replicating speech perception in real world
Supervisor: Yusuke Hioka
Chante de Villiers
BE Final Year Project
Mobile based tabletop system for hearing impaired listeners
Supervisor: Justine Hui
Gabby Sumner
BE Final Year Project
Mobile based tabletop system for hearing impaired listeners
Supervisor: Justine Hui
Dave Walton
BE Final Year Project
Exploring efficient machine learning algorithm for conservation-centric acoustic bird monitoring
Supervisor: Yusuke Hioka
Matthew Liggett
BE Final Year Project
Development of an e-textile based wearable for sonic interaction design
Supervisor: Justine Hui
Matthew Eccleshall
BE Final Year Project
Development of an e-textile based wearable for sonic interaction design
Supervisor: Justine Hui
Visitors/Collaborators/Research assistants
Dr. Benjamin Yen
BE(Hons), PhD (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Benjamin received his B.E. in mechatronics engineering in 2014 from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. From 2014 to 2016, Benjamin was a stress engineer at Altitude Aerospace Interiors (now AIM Altitude). From 2016-2021, he pursued his PhD degree at the University of Auckland in mechatronics engineering with the Faculty of Engineering Scholarship and Acoustics Research Centre Scholarship, specialising in audio and acoustic signal processing. Benjamin graduated on the 5th of May, 2022 and continues his involvement in CAL as a visiting research fellow.
Research
Benjamin’s PhD research focuses on audio recording systems for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), under the supervision of Dr Yusuke Hioka and Prof Brian Mace. The base study involves using microphone arrays; a multi-microphone based technique that captures directional information along with its recordings, to assist with carrying out various applications such as sound source enhancement, separation and localisation.
Dr. Eri Osawa
MA (Sophia University, Japan), PhD (Sophia University, Japan)
Eri Osawa received the M.A. degree in Linguistics from Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, in 2016, followed by a PhD degree in Philosophy from Sophia University in 2019. From 2016 to 2019, she was a Research Assistance at Sophia University, and was a postdoctoral researcher at Sophia University from 2019 to 2022 with research activity about speech perception in reverberant environments. She is currently a Lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Fujiyoshida, Showa University, Japan.
Research
Speech perception
- in reverberant conditions
- for non-native listeners
- Japanese length contrasts
Dr. Xandra Xiyu Song
PhD, Associate Researcher (Guilin University of Electronic Technology, GUET)
During her master’s degree, she was engaged in research on Optical Imaging and Target Positioning; during her doctoral degree, she was engaged in research on Key Technologies of Room Geometry Acoustic Reconstruction and Indoor Acoustic Localization. She was appointed as Assistant Researcher in 2018 and Associate Researcher in 2021. In 2024, visiting scholar at the University of Auckland, New Zealand (funded by China Scholarship Council).
Research
Her research topics include: array sound source localization, spatial sound field reconstruction and indoor and outdoor abnormal sound event identification. In the past five years, she has been teaching undergraduate courses, such as Signals and Systems, Principle of Communication, Spread Spectrum Communication, Digital Signal Processing, and Specialized English for Electronic Information Engineering in the School of Information and Communication, GUET. In the meantime, she led master students to conduct basic research on acoustic signal processing, published 20 academic papers, and obtained 9 granted patents for invention.
Jenice Kuzhikombil
BE Final Year Project
Language learning tool based on speech acoustics
Supervisor: Justine Hui