PhD Oral Exam - Rewan Toubar, Building Engineering

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

As organizations navigate post-COVID-19 workplace transitions, the contrast between remote work comfort and office environments has intensified focus on acoustic quality, particularly speech privacy concerns. Speech privacy, the degree to which conversations remain confidential from unintended listeners, significantly impacts workplace productivity, mental well-being, and job satisfaction. Lack of speech privacy contributes to office distractions that can cause up to a 66% drop in productivity. Despite this importance, speech privacy consistently ranks as one of the lowest scoring parameters in Indoor Environmental Quality satisfaction surveys. Although numerous metrics have been developed to measure speech privacy, there remains no consensus regarding which metric most accurately reflects occupants’ subjective experience. Current limitations include different input variables and test methodologies that make metric equivalences poorly understood, varying criteria set by different industry organizations that sometimes only indirectly address speech privacy, and the absence of a demonstrated single metric applicable to both open and closed office spaces, as existing methodologies typically focus on either open-plan or closed-plan spaces exclusively. This research addresses these critical gaps by developing and validating a comprehensive, unified speech privacy metric suitable for all office configurations. This investigation systematically examines: (1) which existing speech privacy metrics demonstrate the greatest effectiveness for different office types; (2) how a comprehensive, unified speech privacy metric can be developed and validated; (3) how speech levels vary across different office environments; (4) how occupants perceive speech privacy in diverse office environments; and (5) how the new unified metric performs in offices and what performance thresholds should be established. By overcoming the limitations of existing metrics, this work will provide architects, acoustic consultants, and facility managers with a unified assessment framework for optimizing speech privacy in modern workplace design, ultimately enhancing productivity and occupant comfort in contemporary office environments.