On March 29, 2017, representatives of the Acoustics and Acoustoelectronics Department had a meeting with the heads of IT companies Sprint-42 AUDYSSEY and Ring Labs. The purpose of the meeting was to establish useful links for both sides. In the Letter of Intent, signed by the head of the department, professor V.S. Didkovsky and the chief executive director of IT companies, Kira Olexandrivna Rudik-Kuzmenko, it was noted: "The aim of our cooperation is to promote the development of science in the field of information technology, namely: the sphere of artificial intelligence, machine learning in Ukraine by improving the conditions for students training, that is, providing modern equipment necessary for teaching students, granting grants, collaboration in the preparation and conducting of joint studies, etc. "
In addition to the Letter of Intent, the Donation Agreement was also signed, according to which the department was given useful and necessary things for the educational process: the curtains-blinds for audiences №209 and №209А, a computer projector, a screen for the projector, and a wireless microphone system Shure. The latter will come in handy for teachers and dissertators, since often the loudness of their voices is not enough to ensure a good intelligibility of speech.
K.O. Rudik-Kuzmenko informed the students about the requirements for them as future IT people. She told about the directions of the companies she heads. Students listened with great interest and asked questions: what programming languages they need to know and how important the knowledge of English is (answer: the main programming languages for "ordinary" programmers are C ++ and Python, but there is a category of so-called "researchers" who have the right to use high-level software tools - Matlab, Lisp, etc.; the knowledge of English is very important, because you have to communicate closely with American customers).
When asked what exactly is programmed, students found out that this is a software for different gadgets and systems. One of examples is a video doorbell, which is also an element of a home security system. The device is endowed with artificial intelligence, it recognizes the faces of people who are trying to enter the house. The creation of such artificial intelligence is one of the tasks that are solved.
Other projects concern the recognition of speech, the identification of key words and speakers - these tasks should be solved by graduates of the Acoustics and Acoustoelectronics Department. The fact is that real speech occurs against a background of powerful interference, mainly in the form of ambient noise - transport, wind, voices of some people, animals, and so on. The interference is also a reverberation and even echoes in the rooms. And these are acoustic engineers who must provide interference suppression, which significantly reduces the effectiveness of automatic speech recognition systems.
After the meeting, the most interesting laboratories of the department were demonstrated to the guests - they are the muffled rooms, in which the reverberation time is only 0.1 seconds, and the noise level is much lower than it is in the rooms. For comparison we can note that in ordinary university rooms the reverberation time is not less than 0.6 seconds, and sometimes reaches 1.2 seconds.
We agreed on further cooperation in the future. It is planned to hold seminars and training courses with the participation of representatives of IT companies. It would be appropriate here not only to study programming languages and selected special theoretical issues, but also to practice knowledge by modeling devices and systems using modern microcontrollers and microcomputers.
As for students, graduates and dissertators of the department - for them cooperation with IT companies will become a powerful incentive for intensive training at the university and acquiring the necessary knowledge and practical skills.
