About / Vision¶

SMILE investigates a simple but ambitious idea: acoustic environments should be designed with both physical performance and human experience in mind.

Traditional noise control often focuses on sound level. Soundscape research adds the question of how sound is perceived in context. Acoustic metamaterials offer new ways to shape sound through engineered structures. SMILE connects these perspectives at a research level.

The project is not built around a single material or a single acoustic setting. It develops a transferable way of thinking: begin with an acoustic experience worth improving, explore physically meaningful interventions, and test whether the measured change is also meaningful to people.

Research themes¶

Soundscape engineering — understanding how people experience acoustic environments.
Acoustic metamaterials — exploring engineered structures for controlling sound.
Computational design — using modelling and learning-assisted tools to support design exploration.
Evaluation — comparing ideas through appropriate physical and human-centred studies.

Questions that guide the project¶

How can perceptual goals be translated into useful engineering questions?
Which acoustic concepts are promising enough to examine through modelling and experiments?
When can computational and learning-assisted methods make design exploration more effective?
How should physical measurements and listening-based evidence be brought together?

These questions describe the public direction of SMILE without publishing candidate designs, parameter choices, or results before they have been reviewed.

Leadership and collaboration¶

Zibo Liu drives and leads SMILE at KTH. He sets the project direction and coordinates its development, receiving support from collaborators and researchers who contribute complementary expertise at different stages of the work.

Public scope¶

This site provides a high-level account for dissemination. It does not reproduce the detailed research plan, design parameters, experimental protocols, or unpublished results. Those details will be communicated through reviewed publications and released project outputs.

Project facts¶

Project leader: Zibo Liu
Host: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Engineering Mechanics
Funder: Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet)
Period: 1 January 2026–31 December 2029
Grant: 2025-06253