I’m looking forward to taking part in EcoHack 2022, a three-day hands-on workshop on ecological sound recording analysis that will be held at the University of Stirling, Scotland.

With the advent of low-cost passive detectors and the recent development of new acoustic sampling methods, the collection of ecological sounds in the field has gained momentum amongst researchers and practitioners worldwide to answer key ecological questions. The analysis of sound recordings was traditionally done manually but quickly became a time-consuming process. To overcome this issue, acoustic indices have recently been developed to summarize the sonic environment. Furthermore, the use of sound recognition algorithms based on machine learning now allows to discriminate with high confidence specific sounds of interest. As these modern techniques are evolving rapidly, this workshop will provide an opportunity to work collaboratively on projects (hackathon format), learn, discuss, and exchange on state of the art methods in eco-acoustics.

Jeremy Froidevaux and Nicolas Farrugia

The main objectives of EcoHacK are to:

• bring together students, early-career, postdoctoral and senior researchers as well as key stakeholders (e.g. charities and private sector bodies) interested in sound recognition, bioacoustic, and soundscape ecology,
• foster links and collaboration between institutions and across disciplines, as well as encouraging dialogue between the academic and private sector,
• discuss, exchange, and share experiences and best practices in sound recording analysis,
• explore novel ways of linking acoustic data with environmental variables at different spatiotemporal scales.
• work collaboratively on eco-acoustics projects in an intensive, focused three days long “hackathon” format.

Further information is available at https://acoustics.ac.uk/ecohack-2022/

Funding

I would like to thank the UK Acoustics Network for generously funding this workshop and covering my expenses to attend in person.