In work environments—particularly in open-plan offices—speech noise, high STI values, long reverberation times, and noise generated by service equipment emerge as the primary acoustic issues.
Over the past five years, the use of acoustic metamaterials in office environments has become one of the most frequently studied application areas in room acoustics and material science research.
Metamaterials are structures with artificially engineered micro-geometries designed at sub-wavelength scales to achieve acoustic properties not found in natural materials, and they provide high sound absorption at low frequencies through thin and lightweight configurations.
In this event, there will be hands-on activities on the design of metamaterials and their preparation for 3D printing.

About the organiser:

Gianluca Memoli

University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Metasonixx Ltd., Brighton, UK

Gianluca has been working in acoustics for 20 years, all over the frequency spectrum. From medical ultrasound to soundscapes, from metrology to microbubbles... and now metamaterials. A physicist, an engineer, an inventor, an amateur thespian, Gianluca splits his time between teaching at the University of Sussex, being a father of two and nurturing the spin-off Metasonixx (IOP business start-up award of 2024). Gianluca has won multiple awards in his career for his teaching (his course of Entrepreneurship has been voted 4th in the world in 2025), his outreach (IOA award for communicating acoustic to the public in 2013), his research (a UKRI fellowship in 2017).

Gianluca Memoli will also give Plenary Lecture during the congress.