Elias Alfredo Zea Marcano

I was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1989, received a diploma degree in Electronic Engineering at the Universidad Simón Bolívar (Caracas, 2013) and a Ph.D. degree in Vehicle Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, 2017) under the supervision of Prof. Ines Lopez Arteaga. I was a postdoc (2018-2019) and research associate (2020-2023) at the Marcus Wallenberg Laboratory for Sound and Vibration Research (MWL). I received the "Best Paper and Presentation Award for Young Researchers" from the European Acoustics Association at the 23rd International Congress on Acoustics (Aachen, 2019) and a Starting Grant from the Swedish Research Council (Stockholm, 2020).

In March 2023 I was appointed assistant professor in engineering acoustics at MWL. My research interests range from theoretical acoustics to experimental methods and a strong focus on signal processing, harmonic analysis, and data-driven approaches. I am a reviewer in several international journals of acoustics, vibrations, and signal processing: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America; Journal of Sound and Vibration; Applied Acoustics; Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, EURASIP Journal on Audio, Speech, and Music Processing; Noise Control and Engineering Journal; Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control.

News

• Apr 2023, Preprint: E. Zea, E. Brandão, M. Nolan, J. Cuenca, J. Andén, U.P. Svensson, Sound absorption estimation of finite porous samples with deep residual learning, Preprint submitted to The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2023
• Oct 2022, conference paper: O. Lundin, E. Zea, J. Cuenca, U.P. Svensson, Prediction of eigenfrequencies in non-rectangular rooms with machine learning,24th International Congress on Acoustics, Gyeongju, 2022.
• Oct 2022, Preprint: A. Jardines, H. Eivazi, E. Zea, J. Simarro, J. García-Heras, M. Soler, E. Otero, R. Vinuesa, Thunderstorm prediction during pre-tactical air-traffic-flow management using convolutional neural networks, Preprint submitted to Expert Systems with Applications, October 2022.

Ongoing research

• Data-driven modeling of resonance frequencies and modes in daily acoustic environments, with applications to noise control and urban planning. Collaboration with NTNU and Siemens.

• Measurement of sound absorption of finite absorbers with artificial neural networks. Collaboration with the Federal University of Santa Maria, Siemens, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and NTNU.

• Sparse representations of wave fields in 4D space-time, with applications to acoustic fields in enclosures and gravity-capillary waves in water. Collaboration with the University of Sheffield and the University of Trento.

• Literature survey on engineering acoustics using natural language processing. Collaboration with ABB, NeuralMind, and the University of Campinas.

• Sustainable aviation with applications to noise, air-traffic management, and drones. In collaboration with Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Aurskall Akustik, TU Delft, University of Salford.

My research is financially supported by the Swedish Research Council and the European Commission.

Selected publications

1. Zea et al. (2021) "Learning the finite size for in-situ absorption measurement," Euronoise 2021 (e-Congress).
2. Zea and Laudato (2021) "On the representation of wavefronts localized in space-time and wavenumber-frequency domains," JASA Express Letters, vol. 1, no. 5, 054801
3. Zea, Fernandez-Grande, and Lopez Arteaga (2020) "Separation of rail and wheel contributions to pass-by noise with sparse regularization methods," Journal of Sound and Vibration, vol. 487, 115627
4. Zea (2019) "Compressed sensing of impulse responses in rooms of unknown properties and contents," Journal of Sound and Vibration, vol. 459, 114871
5. Zea et al. (2017) "Wavenumber–domain separation of rail contribution to pass-by noise," Journal of Sound and Vibration, vol. 409, pp. 24–42

For the list of all my publications, follow the link to the right.

Recorded talks

• Oct 2021, Conference paper: E. Zea, E. Brandão, M. Nolan, J. Andén, J. Cuenca, U.P. Svensson, Learning the finite size effect for in-situ absorption measurement, Presentation recorded for Euronoise (e-Congress), 2021.
• Dec 2020, Conference paper: E. Zea, E. Fernandez-Grande, I. Lopez Arteaga, Sparsity-driven separation of railway rolling noise with a microphone array, Presentation recorded for e-Forum Acusticum, 2020.

Supervision experience

• J. Ling, MSc thesis, KTH / Zound Industries, 2023
• O. Lundin, MSc thesis, KTH / Siemens / NTNU, 2022
• F. Vernersson, MSc thesis, KTH / Delta Akustik, 2022
• M. Vourakis, Industrial Ph.D., Chalmers / KTH / Volvo, 2021 (academic advisor)
• R. Vestman, M. Westberg, BSc thesis, KTH / Astrid Education, 2021
• P. Gräsberg, V. Söderlund, Individual project SD2101, KTH / ACAD, 2020
• J. Chow, E. Kouamé, BSc thesis, KTH / Scania, 2020
• A. G. Cairelli, MSc thesis, Polytechnic University of Milan, 2020 (cosupervisor)
• G. Eriksson, Individual project SD2102, KTH, 2019
• T. van Loon, BSc traineeship, Technical University of Eindhoven / ABB-CRC, 2018
• V. Reyes, MSc thesis, University of York, 2016
• L. Manzari*, MSc thesis, KTH, 2014

*Awarded "Best MSc Thesis" by the Swedish Acoustical Society,

You can contact me for individual, BSc, or MSc projects within my research directions (see below).

Bachelor/Master project opportunities

• Project on computational models for room acoustics in collaboration with Siemens (read more here).
• Project on estimating individualized head-related transfer functions with machine learning in collaboration with the University of Cologne (read more here).

Teaching experience

• Teacher at KTH in the course SD2125 Signals and Mechanical Systems (2022–)
• Teacher at KTH in the course SD1120 Noise and Vibration Control (2021)
• Teacher at KTH in the course SD2166 Building Acoustics and Community Noise (2020-)
• Teacher at KTH in the course SD1105 Matlab (2020-2021)
• Guest lecturer at KTH in the course SD2125 Signals and Mechanical Systems (2019-2021)
• Teaching assistant at KTH in the course SD2125 Signals and Mechanical Systems (2013-2014)
• Teaching assistant at KTH in the courses DT2300 Sound in Interaction; DT2410 Audio Technology; DT2140 Multimodal Interaction and Interfaces (2012)
• Teaching assistant at Universidad Simón Bolívar in the courses FS2213 Moder/Quantum Physics; EC1251 Analysis of Electrical Circuits (2010-2011)