🔊 the science

Spatial Audio Engineering

3D spatial audio tricks your brain into hearing sound from anywhere in space — above, behind, across the room — through just two speakers or headphones. I've spent the last three years building systems that do exactly this.

🔊
BACCH Laboratories
Cross-talk Cancellation · Personal Sound Zone

Working with Dr. Edgar Choueiri's technology, I prototype and tune 8-speaker Personal Sound Zone arrays that create truly immersive 3D audio without headphones — using a proprietary cross-talk cancellation algorithm to deliver different sound to each ear.

BACCH speaker array built in dorm
8-speaker array I built in my dorm room, Fall 2025 — presented at CES 2026
Array Beamforming EQ Optimization CES 2023–2026
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Princeton 3D3A Lab
AI Head-Tracking · Anechoic Research

Selected as 1 of 4 students from 400+ applicants for the Princeton Laboratory Learning Program. I worked alongside Prof. Edgar Choueiri evaluating AI-integrated head-tracking algorithms inside an anechoic chamber — and integrated those findings directly into BACCH's Optimal Room Correction prototype.

Key insight: Real-time head-tracking dramatically improves the perceived stability of a virtual sound source — the brain expects audio to stay fixed in space even as you move.
Head-Tracking Anechoic Testing 1 of 4 Selected
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CNMAT Research
Planar Loudspeaker Arrays · Hearing Health & Sustainability
Fall 2026 → Present

This semester I joined CNMAT as a researcher studying whether large planar loudspeaker arrays — built with Marziani's technology — can produce a more spatially uniform sound field than conventional live-event systems, reducing localized high-SPL exposure, electrical consumption, equipment, and deployment labor while holding perceived loudness, clarity, and intelligibility constant. Cal Hacks 13.0 at the Palace of Fine Arts is the project's first real-world test: measuring SPL, LAeq, and intelligibility across the venue against a conventional system, while tracking power draw, equipment weight, and labor-hours side by side — then modeling both against a 3D acoustic digital twin of the venue built in Unreal Engine.

Core question: can listeners receive less acoustic exposure without perceiving the experience as quieter, and can that same experience be delivered with less power, equipment, and labor? A new metric — resources per listener (kWh, equipment weight, and labor-hours per 1,000 attendee-hours) — aims to make that comparison concrete.
Planar Arrays Hearing Health Sustainability Digital Twin Marziani

sound travels as waves — and I build systems that control exactly where those waves land

⚡ hackathons @ berkeley

Building the future — one hackathon at a time

As Logistics Director for Hackathons @ Berkeley, I help run the world's largest collegiate hackathon. We bring together thousands of students, industry mentors, and sponsors to build, learn, and push boundaries for 36 hours straight.
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AI Hackathon — June 20–21, 2026
UC Berkeley · Completed ✓

Our focused AI-themed event bringing together Berkeley's brightest engineers, designers, and researchers to tackle the frontiers of machine learning, language models, and intelligent systems. A proving ground for next-generation ideas.

✓ Completed
🏆
Cal Hacks 13.0
UC Berkeley · Fall 2026

The flagship event. Cal Hacks 13.0 — the 13th edition of the world's largest collegiate hackathon. 1,500+ hackers, 36 hours, and hundreds of projects that push the limits of what students can build in a weekend. I'm flagshipping my CNMAT research here: this October I'll test early research on planar drivers in large-venue environments live at the Palace of Fine Arts — a venue roughly 500 feet long filled with 3,000 hackers — with the goal of reducing echo across the space. I hope to publish the work in the near future.

Fall 2026
🤖 made at the hackathon

My Favorite Claude Code Verbs

I made this reel at the AI Hackathon — Claude Code narrates its steps with the most unexpectedly cinematic verbs. These three are my favorites.

Moonwalking
When Claude slides back through context it already read — smooth, deliberate, and just a little theatrical.
Brewing
Quietly preparing something in the background before it arrives fully formed. Patience with purpose.
Shimming
Wedging a tiny fix into a tight gap — the engineering equivalent of a perfectly placed doorstop.
✦ send a postcard

Let's connect

Whether it's spatial audio, consulting, hackathon chaos, or just comparing travel notes — my inbox is always open.

✉ kyliemarcisz@berkeley.edu LinkedIn ↗ GitHub ↗