Karolina Prawda – Measuring, Validating and Analysing Room Impulse Responses

When: 25th November 2026 at 5.15pm.

Where: The Atrium (G.10), Alison House, 12 Nicholson Sq, University of Edinburgh

Title: Measuring, Validating and Analysing Room Impulse Responses

Speaker: Dr Karolina Prawda (University of York)

Abstract Room impulse response (RIR) measurements are the basis of research in room acoustics, auralization, audio effects synthesis, and machine learning for acoustics and audio. However, they are time-consuming and easily disturbed by unwanted sound events. In this talk, we will discuss how to measure RIRs to ensure that they are high quality, free of extra noise, and ready for further analysis or dataset creation. We will challenge the assumption that RIRs are simply decaying Gaussian noise and see why this is beneficial.

Bio Karolina Prawda is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in audio engineering for creative technologies at the AudioLab of the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology at the University of York. In 2017, she received a M.Sc. degree in acoustic engineering from AGH University of Kraków, Poland, and in 2022 she was awarded a D.Sc. (Tech.) degree in acoustics and audio signal processing from Aalto University, Finland. In 2022–2024, she was a Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Information and Communications Engineering of Aalto University. Her research interests include acoustic metrology, room acoustic representation learning, and artificial reverberation.