Dr Jacques Grange

Publication

• Date
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Research

Summary

My primary research interest is in finding new ways to help the hearing impaired better understand speech in the most challenging situations; i.e., when noise and reverberation conspire to make speech almost unintelligible. Every little helps: Every dB of improvement in speech-reception threshold counts. A collection of small benefits can make the difference between a unilaterally deaf person, a hearing aid user or a cochlear implant user, being totally isolated or happily involved in face-to-face conversations in noisy social settings.  Our research has been based on two approaches: helping the hearing impaired make the best of the hearing they have; and improving sound coding so that it more faithfully transduces acoustical signals into the brain.

More recently, my research has involved projects at the heart of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Human-Machine Systems (IROHMS) and the Human Factor Excellence Group (HuFEx). These projects are based on building the research capacity in the IROHMS' Simulation Laboratory (e.g. visual and auditory aspects of the 6m-diameter full immersion cylinder), and my chairing the IROHMS working group on "Ethical and Explainable AI”.

I was recently awarded an EPSRC DTP studentship to study "Rapid information integration in support of situational awareness and spatial behaviour".  This project combines my interests in technology enabled perception, with a real-world problem of firefighters who face challenging emergency settings with impoverished sensory information.  This research is in collaboration with Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, Chief Fire Officer of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Services and Cardiff University Honorary Fellow.

Funding

• PhD funded by Action on Hearing Loss (UK)
• First 3-year Postdoc funded by the Oticon Foundation (Denmark) - (named PDRA)
• Second Posdoc funded by EPSRC - (named PDRA), now Co-I on it
• Awarded an EPSRC DTP 3.5 years studentship (starting Oct 2021)

Research group

• Cognitive Science - Perception and Action - Hearing - Culling Lab
• IROHMS
• HuFEx

Research collaborators

• Dylan Jones (PSYCH Professor, Co-Director of IROHMS and HuFEx)
• Phil Morgan (PSYCH Professor, Co-Director of HuFEx and IROHMS' Director of Research)
• Rob Honey (PSYCH Professor, Co-Director of HuFEx and PSYCH's Director of Research)
• John Culling (PSYCH Professor, hearing specialist)
• Mark Johansen (PSYCH Senior Lecturer, associate member of IROHMS)
• Yulia Hick (ENGIN IROHMS member, Senior Lecturer)
• Qiyuan Zhang (PSYCH IROHMS & HuFEx member, PDRA)
• Chris Wallbridge (PSYCH IROHMS & HuFEx member, PDRA)
• Jing Wu (COMSC IROHMS member, Lecturer)
• Steven Backhouse (Bridgend Princess of Wales Hospital, ENT surgeon)
• Sarah  Hughes (Bridgend Princess of Wales Hospital, audiologist & PhD student)
• Barry  Bardsley (Swansea Audiology Lecturer)
• Rob  McLeod (ENT Surgeon)
• Tim Juergens (Associate Professor in Luebeck University, Germany)

Teaching

I have been engaged in teaching engineering and micro-technologies in the context of providing continuing education.
In the School of Psychology, I supervise final-year and masters projects; and I am the module coordinator of the final-year Human Factors module.  This module has recently been expanded to 20 credits, which enables students to get a solid foundation in Human-factors psychology in the areas of safety and accident prevention, workload and situational awareness, automation and intelligent mobility, human-machine interface design and human-computer interaction, human-robot interaction, acoustics and hearing accessibility, cross-modal communication in heavy industries, and cyber psychology and security.
I also provide Swansea University Audiology Master students with a yearly lecture on cochlear implants.

Biography

Undergraduate education

1985~1988 Engineering  Degree (1st 3 years) from INSA-Lyon, France.

Postgraduate education

• 1988-1990: Engineering  Degree (to Masters level, additional 2 years) from INSA Lyon, France.
  Generalist training. Specialised in Material Physics and further specialised in Materials for  Micro-electronics. 5th year (89/90) as an exchange student at the Royal Institute of  Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden.
• 1990-1991: Higher degree (DEA, M-Phil equivalent) in Integrated Electronics  Devices, INSA Lyon, France.
• 1992~1994 PhD (1st 18 months) in Surface Physics,  Physics & Astronomy Dept., UWCC,  Cardiff, UK.
• 2011~2014 PhD in the Psychology of Auditory Perception,  Psychology Dept., Cardiff University, UK.

Employment

• 1990-91: Teacher in the Continuing Education of Engineers for CAST/INSA, Lyon, France.
• 1994~2010: Surface Technology Systems Plc, various  technology/managerial positions in Process, Engineering and R&D. Specialist  in Plasma-enhanced etch tool and process development for micro-device  manufacturing.
• 2001: Wavesplitter Technologies Inc., Senior Process  Engineer, PLC production line developer.
• 2015~2019: Research Associate, Cardiff University, School of Psychology.
• 2019~present: Lecturer in Human Factors, Cardiff University, School of Psychology.

Supervisions

I currently co-supervise an EPSRC-funded postdoctoral research-associate project on the "Simulation of sensorineural hearing impairments for their differential diagnosis".
From Oct 2021 I will be the main supervisor of an EPSRC-funded (recently awarded) PhD project on the “Rapid integration in support of situational awareness and spatial behaviour” and about decision making vs. cognitive load in fire fighters on a simulated incident scene.