Recruiting for voluntary research survey online

[Daniel Barker]

Dear NextGenBUG,

 

I am forwarding the below on behalf of MSc student Ciara Finn. - Daniel

 

* * * *

 

Dear all,

 

I am an MSc student in Data Science for Biology at the University of Edinburgh, working on a research project in sonification - turning data into sound so it can be explored by ear rather than only by eye.

 

I'm looking for volunteers to help evaluate three different sonification approaches by listening to short audio clips and answering a brief survey. This process will take around 10 minutes to complete. Staff and students are welcome. A basic familiarity with the idea of sequence conservation will help, but you do not need any technical or bioinformatics background to take part.

 

In summary, some regions of protein sequences are more “conserved” than others, meaning they've changed less over evolutionary time, usually because they're functionally important. My project encodes this conservation as sound (e.g. pitch, tempo) so it can be explored by ear instead of only by eye. I have built three different sonification approaches and want to find out which one communicates this information most clearly to a listener.

 

What's involved:

• Visit the website below and listen to three short sonifications
• Complete a short survey about what you heard

Participants must be aged 18 or above and must be in the UK at the time of completing the survey.

 

The survey will remain open until 09:00 on 3/8/26.

 

• Sonifications: https://4273pi.org/files/ciara_masters_project

 

• Survey: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/edinburgh/msa-sonification-survey

 

Participation is voluntary and unpaid. You can stop at any point during the survey. Responses will be stored confidentially.

 

This study is covered by ethics approval dbarker-0004, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh.

 

If you have any questions about this survey, please contact me:

 

Ciara Finn, C.Fi...@sms.ed.ac.uk

 

If you have broader questions or any concerns about the research, please contact Dr Daniel Barker and Dr Edward Martin (Daniel...@ed.ac.uk and Edward...@ed.ac.uk).

 

Thank you for your time,

 

Ciara Finn, C.Fi...@sms.ed.ac.uk

 

 

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. Is e buidheann carthannais a th’ ann an Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann, clàraichte an Alba, àireamh clàraidh SC005336.