Current members
Staff members
Dr. 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 mainly teach electronics and computer engineering courses for the Mechatronics programme. He is also the Deputy Director 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: Vice Chair
- 2016 -: 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.
Her main research interests include speech perception and production of hearing impaired listeners and non-native speakers, hearing assistive technologies and phonetics.
Research
Her current project examines how proficiency in English can affect how we understand speech in noise. She belongs to the Acoustics Research Centre and works with Dr. Yusuke Hioka.
Postgraduate student members
Benjamin Yen
BE(Hons) (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, he returned to University of Auckland to pursue a PhD degree in mechatronics engineering with the Faculty of Engineering Scholarship, specialising in audio and acoustic signal processing.
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.
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 Dr Yusuke Hioka and Associate Prof Catherine Watson.
Seo In Park
BE(Hons) (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Seo In received her B.E. in mechatronics engineering in 2019 from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. From 2020 to 2021, she is studying for her masters in mechatronics engineering, specialising in acoustic signal processing and data analysis under the supervision of Dr Yusuke Hioka.
ME Project
Sound source localisation using UAVs
Charlene Lo
FYP Project
Speech perception in simulated real-world acoustic environments with virtual reality
Undergraduate student members
Benjamin Yen
BE(Hons) (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, he returned to University of Auckland to pursue a PhD degree in mechatronics engineering with the Faculty of Engineering Scholarship, specialising in audio and acoustic signal processing.
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.
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 Dr Yusuke Hioka and Associate Prof Catherine Watson.
Seo In Park
BE(Hons) (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Seo In received her B.E. in mechatronics engineering in 2019 from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. From 2020 to 2021, she is studying for her masters in mechatronics engineering, specialising in acoustic signal processing and data analysis under the supervision of Dr Yusuke Hioka.
ME Project
Sound source localisation using UAVs