Dr Tobias Weller is an employee at the German Hearing Centre in Hanover and works in the Hearing4all Cluster of Excellence on optimising the settings of hearing systems. The electrical engineer has always found cochlear implants exciting and his wish for the future is that hearing-impaired people will one day be able to hear well without restrictions.

Dr Meike Rogalla did her PhD in the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all and worked on the further development of auditory midbrain implants with so-called optogentics. As part of the Joint Research Academy Fellowship, she was able to write a third-party funding proposal, which will now enable her to spend an exciting research period in Michigan. We wish her every success there!

Dr Hendrik Kayser and his team are working on the development of hearing systems of the future, in particular with research platforms for hearing aid algorithms in which, for example, brain signals and movement data are incorporated into the hearing aid signal processing. The researchers hope that this will lead to great successes for people with hearing impairments, especially in complex situations. However, there are still major challenges still need to be overcome for practical use, because no one will wear an EEG cap in everyday life as it is used in laboratory studies…

Katharina Foremny works as an engineer on the further development of new cochlear implants. With the help of so-called carbon nanotubes in silicone rubber, more flexible electrode contacts are to be developed to replace the conventional platinum wires in implants. An exciting combination of engineering, biology and medicine.

Dr. Jennifer Harre is a biologist in the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all and works on the development of biological therapies. Specifically, this involves forward-looking ideas for the protection of nerve cells in order to preserve residual hearing as much as possible during surgery with cochlear implants.

In the H4A cluster, Dr Mareike Buhl is contributing to the further development of hearing research into a discipline of precision medicine. With the help of the so-called “CAFPAs” developed by her, the test battery in the field of audiology is to be optimised.

Dr Sarah Blum works on cognitive aspects of hearing and originally wanted to work in dementia research. She is developing new approaches for truly ‘smart hearing aids’ of the future, because the devices should recognise what you really want to hear.

In this first interview you will get to know Prof. Dr. Bernd Meyer, who deals with automatic speech recognition and has developed an automated version of an internationally recognised speech test, which is now available for smart devices like Alexa.