Dr. Siu-Kit Lau (Eddie)
The Shanghai Panel (SHP) of The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) had annual dinner on March 27, 2015. Committee members, guests and student in the University of Nottingham at Ningbo joined this wonderful night and discussions.
The 11th International Conference on Green and Energy-Efficient Building & New Technologies and Products Expo has been held in Beijing on March 24 and 25. Dr. Siu-Kit Lau has been invited for a speech regarding the current research at classroom acoustics in China. Results have been compared with a recent study in UK. There are other professionals sharing their studies and experiences in green campus development.
Acoustics in Offices:
— A Major Element for Health, Wellbeing and Productivity of Staff
Typical Business Operation Cost (Source: http://www.worldgbc.org)
Recently, a new report from the World Green Building Council (WGBC) finds “overwhelming evidence” that office design significantly impacts the health, wellbeing and productivity of staff.
Staff costs typically accounts for 90% of business operating costs. A study in 1998 found that there was up to a 66% drop in performance for a ’memory for prose’ task when participants were exposed to different types of background noise. A follow-up study by the same authors in 2005 found that 99% of people surveyed reported that their concentration was impaired by office noise such as unanswered phones and background speech.
Background sound levels need to drown out unwanted distraction, but not be too loud to cause stress, therefore a background sound level of 45dBA is recommended in open plan offices. In private or cellular offices the background sound levels can be reduced to 40dBA. In both cases, any higher and that background sound itself risks becoming a distraction.
For more details about the report, it is kindly suggested to visit the link below.
http://www.worldgbc.org/activities/health-wellbeing-productivity-offices .
University of Nottingham-Ningbo Campus (UNNC) hold a student design competition of a rural school with Adream. Dr. Lau is happy to participate in this event and offer the seminars for the students in acoustics and lighting designs. Faculties in UNNC have visited a school in Gansu. Details please visit this link.
University of Nottingham-Ningbo Campus
The South China Univeristy of Technology and Dr. Lau of Armstrong have compared the objective acoustic parameters and students’ subjective responses before and after an acoustic treatment in an elementary-school classroom. Acoustic treatment was done by installing sound absorption materials on the ceiling of the classroom for control of sound reverberation. The effects of reverberation time on children’s speech recognition have also been investigated. Results show that (1) the objective acoustic parameters in the classroom were obviously improved; (2) the subjective loudness of different types of noise sources, that students experienced in the classroom, were reduced; and (3) the speech intelligibility was significantly improved in the classroom after the acoustic treatment.
The article can be found from this link.
Warmest wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !
Elsevier Certificate 2014
Dr. Siu-Kit (Eddie) Lau awarded a Certificate of Reviewing from Applied Acoustics (Journal).
Meeting of Acoustical Society of China has been held in Nanjing on November 28th to 30th, 2014. Dr. Siu-Kit Lau has provided a presentations of classroom acoustics during the meeting.
Opening speech of the meeting of Acoustical Society of China 2015
Adream is a non-profit organization serving underprivileged children in rural areas and urban inner-cities. Dr. Siu-Kit Lau joined with Prof. Tenorio in University of Nottingham in Ningbo met Ms. Sun (Director) of Adream on Nov 28, 2014. Collaboration of development and a student competition in school development have been discussed.
ISO/TC 163 and ISO/TC 205 meeting had been held in Wuxi on September 14-20, 2014. ISO/TC 205 is for the international standards of Building environment design, while ISO/TC 163 is for the international standards of Thermal performance and energy use in the built environment. This meeting is hosted by China. Next meeting will be held in Canada.
