Digital Hearing Aid Technology
Hearing: what it is, why it’s complicated and how hearing aids can help.
About
Hearing is the detection and interpretation of pressure waves.
It attempts to answer the what and where questions, as well as interpreting the sound. Human hearing is complex and very sophisticated.
The talk will review how hearing works from the outer ear to the auditory cortex. Complex systems like hearing can fail in many different ways and hearing aids can help for some of these. The speaker will discuss the basics of digital hearing aids and which hearing impairments they can and cannot help with.
1
Continuing Professional Development
This event can contribute towards your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours as part of the IET's CPD monitoring scheme.
16 Sep 2026
2:00pm - 4:00pm
Organiser
- Scotland South East Local Network
Speakers
Leslie Smith
Professor Emeritus
Leslie Smith is Professor Emeritus of Computing at the University of Stirling.
After a degree in Mathematics (1973), some time in industry, and a PhD in Computing (1981), he joined Glasgow University as a lecturer. After another sojourn in industry as a consultant, he joined Stirling University. His interest in parallel computing led him to work on neural computing: he helped found the Centre for Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at Stirling University.
Early work on human and animal sound perception led to an interest in the design of hearing aids and he set up Stirling Hearing Systems, designing novel hearing aids in 1998.
Now emeritus, (and now a user of hearing aids) he maintains an interest in sound perception and hearing, both natural and artificial.
Reasons to attend
This event will be of interest to anyone interested in hearing and digital hearing aid technology.
Programme
1400 Talk start
1445 Question and answer
1500 Refreshments and networking
1600 Event ends