Auditory Biophysics and Simulation Laboratory

Department of Biomedical Engineering
44 Cummington Street, Boston, MA 02215
Principal Investigators: David C. Mountain, Allyn E. Hubbard

Faculty

David C. Mountain, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
Areas of Interest: Auditory information processing; sensory biophysics; computer simulation; biomedical electronics and biomedical and signal processing.

Allyn E. Hubbard, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
Areas of Interest: Auditory physiology; modeling; neurocomputing; VLSI in biomedical applications; Biosensors.

Staff

Dave Anderson – Research Engineer, Hearing Research Center
Areas of Expertise: Software architecture, design, coding and integration; user interface development; general software wizardry.
Current Projects: Development, maintenance and photography for the HRC Website. Lead developer for the ESME and EarLab projects in the Auditory Biophysics and Simulation Laboratory of the HRC.
Andrew Brughera – Research Associate, Hearing Research Center
Areas of Expertise and Interest: Computational models of brainstem neurons in acoustic hearing and cochlear implants; Software development, architecture, and algorithmic integrity in EarLab; Model implementation and support of the EarLab auditory modeling community
Duk Joong Kim –Research Associate, Hearing Research Center
Areas of Expertise: Mixed-signal circuit design, layout, implementation and verification. Primary interest is designing full custom VLSI ASIC chips using standard CMOS and high-voltage CMOS processes.
Current Projects: Development, simulation and verification of multi-compartmental cochlear models.
Andrew Tubelli – Research Associate, Hearing Research Center
Areas of Expertise: 3D reconstruction via medical imaging, finite element modeling of structural mechanics; medical animation and visuals; cetacean middle ear
Current Projects: Understanding the mechanics of hearing in dolphins and whales via 3D reconstruction of the middle ear from CT and histology; finite element analysis of the middle ear bones to characterize motion; material property (i.e. elastic modulus) analysis through nanoindentation; postmortem examination of the auditory bulla.
Franck Zagadou, Ph.D. – Research Associate, Hearing Research Center
Area of Expertise: Theoretical and Computational Continuum Mechanics. Modeling of acoustics, vibration and wave propagation in complex fluid-elastic systems.
Aleks Zosuls – Research Engineer, Hearing Research Center
Areas of Expertise: Designing and fabricating custom mechatronic systems. His primary research interests lie in cochlear and middle ear mechanics.
Current Projects: Measuring mechanical properties of the basilar membrane, middle ear mechanics and head acoustics of cetacean, electronic auditory nerve simulators, sound localization and detection, echolocation for humans.

Graduate Students

Nael Musleh – Electrical and Computer Engineering Master's student

Mikhil Bopaiah – Biomedical Engineering, Ph.D. student
Laura Rupprecht – Biomedical Engineering, M.Eng. student
Area of Expertise and Interest: Electrophysiology, Systems Physiology, Ion Channel Dynamics.
Current Projects: Determining the frequency responses of the basilar membrane to applied mechanical stimuli.
Jie Yan – Biomedical Engineering, Ph.D. student

Undergraduate Students

Tom Hagedorn
Dana Jaeger
Chris Mattahoni
Jared Saffie

Collaborators

Paul Barbone, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Douglas Cotanche, Ph.D.,  Associate Professor of Otolaryngology and Anatomy & Neurobiology
Dorian Houser, Ph.D., Biomimetica, Inc.
Darlene Ketten, Ph.D., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Mike Porter, Ph.D., Heat, Light, and Sound Research, Inc.
Martin Siderius, Ph.D., Portland State University

Alumni

Click here for the list of alumni.