Acoustics researcher Kai Saksela’s startup makes it into Startup Sauna

Doctoral candidate Kai Saksela conducts research in acoustics optimisation as a part-time member of prof. Lauri Savioja’s research group in the Department of Computer Science. He graduated as a Master of Science in Engineering at the beginning of 2012.

‘I decided to start making research around two years after completing my Master’s degree. In working life I did not get to consider things as deeply as I would have wanted, because there the efficiency of producing results easily rises to dominate all other considerations’, Kai Saksela relates.

Saksela founded Noiseless Acoustics ltd together with Jonas Nyberg in January 2015. The main product, a new kind of acoustic camera, has been developed by them together since the end of  2013.

‘The acoustic camera’s operations can be compared to an infra-red one. Just as an infra-red camera shows the incoming direction and temperature of infra-red radiation, so the acoustic camera shows the incoming direction of sound and other data such as its frequency content’, Saksela explains.

The acoustic camera is especially suitable for pinpointing typical sound insulation defects and for investigating products’ acoustic properties. Sound insulation measurements can be carried out in a much more logical fashion when they include the use of an acoustic camera which clearly displays the problem areas.

In addition, the acoustic camera has many other application areas, as it resolves many problems better than any other procedure. For example, discharges taking place in electrical grids are clearly visible using the camera. The precise pinpointing of such discharges can be important in electrical grid maintenance work.

‘In five years, I see myself as part of a company developing very interesting products for the international market. I believe that my doctoral dissertation, which is slowly but surely progressing, would be complete by that point’, Saksela further adds.

Startup Sauna is a very popular business incubator which received 700 applications in 2015 from businesses from 17 different countries. Out of these 700 applications, only 14 were chosen, which equates to only 2% of applicants. This time three Finnish companies made it into the programme.

More information:

Kai Saksela
kai.saksela@aalto.fi
+358010 583 3240

Noiseless Acoustics

Startup Sauna