Ruben Vazquez Amos - MSc Architectural and Environmental Acoustics
Now Associate Member of the Institute of Acoustics, presented conference paper at InterNoise 2022, obtained a grant to return to London South Bank University to continue studies at PhD level. He is currently working as a Doctoral Researcher.
Studying acoustics at LSBU has been a greatly enriching experience. Before I started I was almost completely new to the field (my background is in music and audio) - now I have met many interesting people and graduated with a wealth of industry contacts and friends.
The course was a good balance of hands-on (via experiments and reports) and theoretical (via research projects and exams). Seeing practical applications and demonstrations of what had been covered in lectures was invaluable, and made possible by the wealth of facilities available in the laboratory. The staff/student ratio was also a plus – my lecturers were very approachable and willing and available to offer help and support when it was most needed. I also can’t overstate how helpful my classmates were in this process. Everyone was very proactive and communicative, both in person and remotely (especially near deadlines!).
Whilst studying I was able to take advantage of the links LSBU has with industry; during my second semester, I undertook an internship at Clarke Saunders Consultants. After graduating I then went into consultancy full-time, taking up a position at RBA Acoustics. One of the directors at RBA had delivered one of the masterclass lectures on the MSc, which was how I made the connection.
I also really enjoyed various field trips to concert halls (Henry Wood Hall, Royal Opera House) and industry (the architectural firm Fosters and Partners and the Institute of Acoustics conference, among others).
For my dissertation, I investigated the effects of facemasks on speech intelligibility. I was able to link up with one of the foremost experts in the field of Speech Intelligibility, who agreed to be my co-supervisor. I was also able to present some of the preliminary findings at an international conference, InterNoise. Neither of these things would have been possible without the help of my supervisor from LSBU at the time.
Overall, I would recommend the MSc course to anyone looking to begin or further their journey in the field of acoustics.