To take the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research’s internationally important work forward in the 21st century, a new £6 million purpose-built facility has been constructed on the University’s Highfield Campus.
The new building will provide much needed facilities and space for the expansion of the ISVR South of England Cochlear Implant Centre, where children and adults with severe-profound hearing loss receive life-changing technology allowing them to communicate via speaking and listening.
The new building on the University’s Highfield Campus is also home to the Human Factors Research Unit (HFRU), which houses unique specialist laboratories for understanding how humans are affected by all forms of vibration. These include a motion simulation laboratory which has the world’s only six-axis simulator for investigating the effect of motion on people’s performance and comfort.
These state-of-the art facilities were officially opened by HRH the Earl of Wessex on Tuesday 22 January 2008.
The University of Southampton’s ISVR is Europe’s leading centre for research, teaching and consultancy in sound and vibration. For over forty years the Institute has worked on the interface between technology and humans, playing a major part in making aircraft quieter, developing more efficient cochlear implants for people with hearing loss, and improving sound systems. In 2006 it was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize.
