Research management & consultancy

• Contributing to the development of research design, data collection and management methods.

Organizational and research process management

• Improved and streamlined workflows for (clinical) study protocols, ethics, and data protection regulation increasing productivity conducting experimental research.
• Directed the yearly resource management for teaching and research activities in collaboration with the head of the institute, leading to minimized and equally distributed workload and higher satisfaction.

Change management

• Coordinated transition roadmap to smoothly merge two chairs into one institute by initiating communication guidelines, restructuring team meetings, implementing strategy retreats, and defining common goals.
• Secured knowledge transfer by establishing documentation standards and fostering aligned communication and collaboration.

Team development

• Facilitated team-building events, implemented onboarding structures, and conducted development talks.
• Roll-out of digital communication and collaboration systems (Mattermost server, OpenProject).

Strategic and innovative project planning & funding allocation

• Contributed to grant applications (DFG, EU Horizon, etc.): 6 out of 8 successfully granted.

Project management in 3 research projects

• Developed and executed project roadmaps: resource, risk, requirement, and time management.
• Managed stakeholders (e.g., funding institutions, governmental institutions, educational institutions).

People engagement & development

• Supervised student and project work: 7 bachelor theses, 9 master theses, 13 student workers (in groups of 4-5 students in parallel, individually & collaborative).
• Conducted teaching activities incl. lectures and exercise supervision, hands-on demos, and lab courses.

Independent research activities in 2 projects

• Developed an objective metric predicting speech intelligibility from electrocochleography data (speech intelligibility predictor).
• Created standardized and high-quality stimuli sets using commercial text-to-speech generators (multi-lingual digit triplet test).

Assisting in research project

• “iCARE – Improving Children’s Auditory Rehabilitation” - listening experiment implementation and design.

Assisting in several research projects

• InMEAs – Parameter determination of “intelligent micro-electrode arrays”.
• VLARS - Building hardware multiplexer for connector to micro-electrode arrays.

Assisting in a research project

• MedIT exoskeleton - Building and setting up a test station to test joint stresses; basic circuit board design, printing and soldering.

Successfully defended on January 31st, 2025.

Doctoral project: Noise Exposition in Pre- and Primary Schools: Exploring Noise Effects in Young Children

Associated doctoral student in Research Training Group RTG 2416 - MultiSenses MultiScales

Founding member

• Pioneered a network to advocate and catalyze the empowerment of females in engineering and acoustics.

Event & sponsor management

• Implemented and applied funding strategies, managing stakeholders, and collaborators for events.

Stakeholder management

• Successful determined agreements satisfying all academic groups (professors, students, external stakeholders), including their needs, expectations, and objectives in different committees (e.g., professor appointment committee, structure and budget allocation committee, examination board).

Strategic advocacy

• Negotiated, facilitated, and coordinated a strategy plan and objectives to increase female representation at all academic levels.

Coaching & conflict management

• Mentored female researchers in conflict situations by being the first contact person with PhD students and supporting them in facing the situation appropriately.

Resource & people management

• Co-led a team of six people by building an efficient and productive organization structure, defining roles and responsibilities, and maintaining collaboration and network structures to optimize output and achievements with limited resources in a non-profit association for young researchers.

Management of social media & digital communication channels

• Facilitated a digital information and networking platform for young professionals across Europe.
• Implemented a curated social media strategy to achieve higher visibility, leading to a higher budget.

Program development & coordination

• Developed and implemented an international mentoring program within acoustic across European universities and companies to foster exchange between juniors and seniors across countries.
• Coordinated the (digital) international job fair for students and young professionals by collaborating with acoustic companies and universities. During COVID times, a digital solution was created within the

Self-development

• Participated as a mentee in a mentoring program for female empowerment in research by joining a mentoring tandem, trainings (with topics on, e.g., leadership and management), and a multi-disciplinary network.

Strategic planning

• Defined yearly roadmaps to enhance mentoring activities, raise membership numbers, and gain more public awareness towards educational equity for all children of every background.

Sponsor recruiting

• Implemented a structured system to achieve yearly required funding by introducing sponsoring events, yearly updates on activities for members and supporters, and cultivating public relations via social media.

First insights in academic organizations

• Elected board member
• Coordination of several projects (first-year student introduction, graduation ball, Ice hockey Unicup)
• Student representation (committee for studies and teaching, appointment committees)

Contribution:

Seitz, J., & Loh, K. (2023). A Listening Experiment to Study Intentional Switching of Auditory Selective Attention in Preschool Children. POSTER 2023, 27th International Student Conference on Electrical Engineering, Prague, Czech Republic.

Category external – promoting interests of female primary school students for STEM

Initiative “The interactive world of acoustics for young and older children”.
Coordination and supervision – Karin Loh
Lead – Janina Fels

Contribution:

Loh, K., & Fels, J. (2018). Binaural psychoacoustic parameters describing noise perception of children in comparison to adults. [Invited talk in structured session] Euronoise 2018, Hersonissos, Crete, Greece.

Contribution:

Loh, K. (2017) A concept to compare noise perception by adults and children using aurally accurate measurements. POSTER 2017, 21th International Student Conference on Electrical Engineering, Prague, Czech Republic.