An ambitious collaboration between Aalborg University and Sound Hub Denmark – uniting the best in class in sound innovation

The cooperation between Sound Hub Denmark (SHD) and Aalborg University (AAU) opens up for many exiting projects relevant to the development of our society and ties direct bonds between international business ideas using sound or acoustics as part of their offering and the talent base in Denmark.

Denmark is a significant player in the sound domain internationally, so the location of the world’s first sound cluster and coworking space in Struer, City of Sound is rather apparent. The cooperation with Aalborg University is just as apparent, as AAU offers world-class sound-related research and education as part of its study program. Also, AAU is known for its collaboration with industry partners, such as Bang & Olufsen.

AAU is ranked the best university for engineering in Europe and often first-mover in introducing new forms of direct interaction between business and knowledge institutions and facilitation of knowledge collaborations.

We believe our commitment to Sound Hub Denmark will lead to highly relevant research projects and other entrepreneurial activities. The importance of having a national hub for sound, audio, signal processing and other related areas cannot be emphasized enough. We believe this will provide a solid foundation for our study programs and attract new students.”

explains Jan Østergaard, Professor, Department of Electronic Systems, AAU.

For the past 1½ years, AAU has been present during all the SoundTech Accelerator Programs aimed at talented international sound start-ups and participated in relevant sound events and workshops held at Sound Hub Denmark working with gifted students defining relevant projects.

At Sound Hub Denmark, we provide space with modern facilities, laboratories, and access to an extensive network of dedicated specialists in related areas in the industry. We do this in collaboration with our partners such as AAU. Together we set the scene for a productive meeting between industry and education, ensuring sound innovation is taken to the next level. Many companies, especially start-ups, do not have a tradition for working with universities, still, AAU has perfected and nurtured this over the years, making them a perfect partner for us.”

states Peter Petersen, CEO of Sound Hub Denmark.

Areas of collaboration

Together, we are currently developing on more specific areas of the collaboration in:

• Making joint applications to support research collaborations
• Creating a dedicated space at SHD, where AAU will be present and set up demos
• Planning mutual sound events/workshops to be held at SHD
• Establishing student-company collaboration projects and internships (BSc, MSc, PhD) – at SHD
• Offer courses, lectures and master class to be attended by SHD coworkers
• Having researchers (PostDoc. & Prof.) on site
• Mutual use of lab facilities + tech personnel
• Creating an environment for technological knowledge transfer

With professional facilities and access to highly skilled industry professionals close by, the ambition is to improve both research quality and the innovation capabilities of new emerging companies in the sound domain.