Course for Graduate Students: Cetacean Acoustics

(March. 3 to 13; Sao Paulo, Brazil)

Course for up to 8 (eight) graduate students in Sao Paulo, Brazil organized by the Instituto Oceanografico - Universidade de São Paulo (IOUSP) with the support of Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP).

Ph. D. Laura Kloepper (National Science Foundation funded Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University and Visiting Scholar Appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth; www.laurakloepper.net) will be visiting Brazil and will share information on an important field of cetacean investigation. 

The course is free of charge, except in the 5 last fieldwork days which will include the amount of around U$ 100 to cover expenses of food and accomodation taxes at the IOUSP research base at the Cananeia estuary.

The conceptual framework will be worked from March 3rd to 7th in the main headquarters of the IOUSP in Sao Paulo, and fieldwork working with Guiana dolphin acoustics will be done at the Cananeia estuary from Mar. 9th to 13th. Transportation to the field and back to Sao Paulo will be provided by the IOUSP.

The main topics to be covered in this course are:  

-- introduction to physics of underwater sounds

-- introduction to biology and anatomy of sound production in cetaceans

-- introduction to tools used to record sounds (hydrophones, amplifiers, recorders)

-- using arrays (localization, beam reconstruction, etc)

-- software to analyze sounds (focus on free software but also touch on matlab)

-- interpreting and understanding sounds: linking to mitigation and monitoring

It is a 60h course and may be used as credits to graduate courses. 

Classes will be in English.

Interested students may get in touch with Prof. Marcos Santos (sotalia@gmailcom) who will answer questions about subscriptions (to be opened from February 1st to 24th; form and docs to be sent by e-mail) and will help with indications on where to stay in Sao Paulo. 

The ones who want to start searching a place to stay, there is an interesting opportunity to spend less or no money when staying at student's houses close to the university. Check at https://www.facebook.com/usp.ifriends.

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