We have reached a meaningful anniversary in the life of Hungarian acoustic science and of Hungarian acousticians. Through all the many difficulties and growing constraints of the past 10 years, the Dénes Huszty Foundation — established to support the work of young acousticians and the new generation choosing this specialism as a vocation — has continued to operate successfully.
The Dénes Huszty Foundation, established under the Founding Charter of 1 October 2001, was entered into the register by the Metropolitan Court by order no. 11. Pk. 60644/2001/6 under sequence number 8398, and was classified as a foundation of public-benefit status.
Founders: Dr. Gábor Huszty, Entel Műszaki Fejlesztő Kft., the Scientific Association for Infocommunications (HTE), and the Scientific Association for Optics, Acoustics, Motion Pictures and Theatre Technology (OPAKFI).
The aim of the Foundation is to recognise and support outstanding results — contributing to the development of Hungarian acoustics — achieved by young professionals working in the field of acoustics or electroacoustics: thesis students currently completing their higher studies, recent graduates, and young acousticians who have not yet reached their 35th year at the time of application.
By making the results of prize-winning applicants known, supporting related education, and disseminating knowledge, the Foundation carries out public-benefit activities as set out below.
- Scientific activity, research (Act CLVI of 1997, Section 26(c)(3)) and development.
- Education, training, skills development, knowledge dissemination (Act CLVI of 1997, Section 26(c)(4)); which the Foundation carries out by presenting the results of acoustics in such a way that they
- assist the unfolding of the convergence of information and communication technologies,
- broaden the professional knowledge of the members of the founding associations through public announcements of competition results,
- in a manner reflecting the social importance of the field, open up greater scope for young researchers to continue their research work successfully and make it known to the public, and
- also help in following developments in the profession and in their rigorous dissemination,
- Through its public competitions, the Foundation's public-benefit services are available not only to the members of the founding associations but also to all those, primarily technically qualified, professionals who do successful work in the field of acoustics.
- In pursuit of its public-benefit goals, the Foundation issues calls for applications in order to highlight the technical, economic, and social questions of its specialist field.
- The Foundation, also through the members of its Board of Trustees, follows the international and domestic results of its specialist field, as well as new technical and technological solutions and methods, and issues its calls for applications in order to transmit and discuss scientific, technical, and economic knowledge.
- In accordance with its Founding Charter, the Foundation, with the cooperation of the founding associations, ensures the conditions and the publicity needed for carrying out the professional activities related to the competitions.
- The Foundation's annual prizes may be applied for by means of a submitted work.
- The Board of Trustees issues the call for applications by 1 November of the year preceding the reference year and publishes it with appropriate publicity.
- Applicants may take part in the competition by submitting a summary of their independent work, articles published in field-specific journals, or a new paper as the submitted work, provided they hold a higher-education diploma, primarily as engineers or physicists. Importantly, applicants may also hold degrees other than in engineering or physics, but their activity must fall within the field of acoustics.
According to the most recent call for applications, open for submissions until 5 December 2011, entries presenting the author's own new scientific results, theoretical or practical innovations, or developments could be submitted in topic areas covering the principal fields of acoustics (e.g. engineering acoustics, electroacoustics, theoretical, physical, and vibration acoustics, room acoustics, media informatics, acoustic informatics, medical acoustics).
Looking back on the past 10 years, the calls for applications and the prize-winning submissions bring together works and applicants worthy of the Foundation's mission, reflect the interest in the competition of young — mainly technically qualified — professionals who practise their profession as a vocation, rank among the most significant and best-attended events on the annual programmes of the founding associations, and unquestionably enhance the standing of the Dénes Huszty Foundation.
Prize-winning applications at the competitions of the Dénes Huszty Foundation
| Competition topic | Recipient | |
| 2001 | The application of the latest results of electroacoustics in studio technology | György Wersényi: HRTFs in human localization. Measurement, spectral evaluation and practical use in virtual audio enviroment. Dr. Péter Baranyi: Modern control engineering tools in studio technology. |
| 2002 | The processing of sound information in electroacoustics, or the latest results of research and development relating to sound quality. | Péter Olaszi: Hungarian text-to-speech conversion, language models, algorithms and their implementation. György Várallyay Jr.: Acoustic analysis of infant cries (TDK paper, Certificate of Merit) |
| 2003 | The latest results on the acoustic questions of speech communication, media informatics, and studio technology | In this year the Foundation did not award a prize |
| 2004 | Informatics methods for solving acoustic problems | András Kocsor: Machine learning and speech representation. Ferenc Márki: Identification of noise sources using the boundary element method. |
| 2005 | Current acoustic problems and modern solutions; acoustic questions of multimedia content services. | Krisztián Gulyás: The present and future of active noise reduction. |
| 2006 | Applications of numerical methods and modelling in vibration acoustics; modern signal processing methods applied to acoustics | Péter Fiala: Modelling soil–structure interaction in the high-frequency range relevant from an acoustic perspective. |
| 2007 | Modern acoustic solutions to acoustic problems. The acoustic aspects of content production and reproduction. | Péter Mihajlik: Machine recognition of spontaneous Hungarian speech without language-specific rules |
| 2008 | Works presenting the author's own new scientific results, theoretical or practical innovations, or developments in topic areas covering the principal fields of acoustics (e.g. engineering acoustics, electroacoustics, theoretical, physical, and vibration acoustics, room acoustics, media informatics, acoustic informatics, medical acoustics). | György Szaszák: The role and use of suprasegmental features in automatic speech recognition. |
| 2009 | Works presenting the author's own new scientific results, theoretical or practical innovations, or developments in topic areas covering the principal fields of acoustics (e.g. engineering acoustics, electroacoustics, theoretical, physical, and vibration acoustics, room acoustics, media informatics, acoustic informatics, medical acoustics). | Tamás Böhm: Analysis and modelling of speech produced with irregular phonation |
| 2010 | Works presenting the author's own new scientific results, theoretical or practical innovations, or developments in topic areas covering the principal fields of acoustics (e.g. engineering acoustics, electroacoustics, theoretical, physical, and vibration acoustics, room acoustics, media informatics, acoustic informatics, medical acoustics). | Péter Rucz: Determination of acoustic parameters of organ pipes by means of numerical techniques. Szilvia Molnár: Acoustic study of the Győr Synagogue and its comparison with the Richter concert hall (Certificate of Merit) |
| 2011 | Works presenting the author's own new scientific results, theoretical or practical innovations, or developments in topic areas covering the principal fields of acoustics (e.g. engineering acoustics, electroacoustics, theoretical, physical, and vibration acoustics, room acoustics, media informatics, acoustic informatics, medical acoustics). | Review in progress |
Most of the winners of the competition prizes have since obtained the PhD degree and become recognised figures of Hungarian scientific and educational life. Two of them (Krisztián Gulyás and Péter Fiala) have also received further domestic professional recognition. The work of Péter Baranyi (Doctor of the HAS and Professor at BME), who has become an outstanding, internationally recognised, and domestically honoured authority in the field of infocommunications, also attests to the interdisciplinary significance of acoustics as a scientific field.
The recognition of the Hungarian profession confirms that the founders' intention has been realised over the first ten years: in memory of the outstanding professional work of Dénes Huszty, and in continuation of his aims, young professionals in the field have contributed significantly to the development of acoustic science and of the sector.
Dr. András Illényi, Gábor Heckenast, Dr. Gábor Huszty, Tamás Pintér Trustees of the Foundation
Budapest, December 2011