Co-investigator - The sound environment for critically ill patients in NHS hospitals, NIHR Physical Environment Research Programme, UK (2009-2012), £100k, (Joined with Prof. Jian Kang, Dr. Gary Mills, and Dr. Mei Zhang)

Chief Investigator - The sound environment for patients and staff in hospitals (2010-2011), UK Clinical Research Network (Portfoilio Number 7995)

Young Scientist Grant, International Institute of Noise Control Engineering, 2011

Young Scientist Grant, International Institute of Noise Control Engineering, 2010

Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad

Great Britain-China Educational Trust Grant

Henry Lester Trust Grant

Travel Grant, International Symposium on Room Acoustics 2007

University of Sheffield Full Scholarship

My hospital research aims to explore the acoustic effects in hospitals and investigate the design issues as part of the optimisation of the overall physical environment. This research will improve the treatment of patients and positively influence their health outcomes, by providing higher quality hospital environments. It will also help to create better working environment for staff and provide practical recommendations for best value design.

My working plan in soundscape research is to provide practical guidance and tools for the design and implementation of soundscapes for use by urban planners and policy makers, and for preserving architectural heritage sites, eventually promote soundscape into current legislations, policies and practice. I am experienced in a number of multidisciplinary methods, such as grounded theory, acoustic simulation and agent-based modeling.

Currently, I am the reviewer for four international journals (Acta Acustica united with Acustica, Noise Control Engineering Journal, Noise & Health, Journal of Healthcare Engineering), and the editor of a national conference.

Peer-reviewed journal papers

Xie H, Kang J, 2012. The acoustic environment of Intensive Care wards based on long period nocturnal measurements. Noise & Health (under review)

Xie H, Kang J, 2012. The sound power levels of typical medical equipment in the hospital. Acta Acustica united with Acustica, 98(4): 651-658

Xie H, Kang J, 2012. Sound field of typical single-bed hospital wards. Applied acoustics, 73(9): 884-892

Xie H, 2012. Emergy evaluation for the environmental sustainability of Chongqing Municipality in China. International Journal of Global Warming, 4(1): 1-12

Zhang H H, Xie H, 2012. Applicability of weighting methods in calculating STI for assessing speech intelligibility of Chinese in rooms. Journal of Zhejiang University - Engineering, 46(3): 463-469

Xie H, Kang J, 2011. The impacts of environmental noise on the academic achievements of secondary school students in Greater London. Applied Acoustics, 72(b): 551-555

Xie H, 2010. Assessment of the relationships between air quality and socio-economic factors in Sheffield, UK using GIS. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, 9(b): 2040-2046

Xie H, Kang J, 2010. On the relationships between environmental noise and socio-economic factors in Greater London. Acta Acustica united with Acustica, 96(3): 472-481

Xie H, Kang J, Mills G, 2009. The impact of noise on patients- sleep and the effectiveness of noise reduction strategies in intensive care units. Critical Care, 13:208

Xie H, Kang J, 2009. Relationships between environmental noise and social-economic factors: Case studies based on NHS hospitals in Greater London. Renewable Energy, 34(9): 2044-2053

Chao J, Xie H, 2008. A glimpse of hospital evidence-based design in the UK. Urban Architecture, 46: 31~32 (in Chinese)

Hou S J, Xie H, 2007. Incidental vocabulary learning of non-English major graduates. The Journal of Asia TEFL, 4(4): 111-132, 2007

Xie H, Li B S, Hou S J, 2006. Subjective evaluation of the indoor environment quality of urban residential buildings in autumn and winter in Chongqing. Journal of Central South University of Technology, 13: 93-96 Suppl. 1

Conference presentations

Xie H, Kang J, Waye P K, 2012. The outdoor soundscape design of Swedish hospitals. 9th European Conference on Noise Control, Prague, Czech (invited)

Xie H, Kang J, 2011. On the relationships between the environmental noise and the academic performance of secondary school students in Greater London. Internoise 2011, Osaka, Japan (invited)

Xie H, Kang J, 2011. An observational study of noise sources in the hospital. 5th International Symposium on Temporal Design, Sheffield, UK

Xie H, Kang J, 2010. The evolving perception of staff on the acoustic environment of Critical Care Units. Internoise 2010, Lisbon, Portugal (invited)

Xie H, Kang J, 2009. Sound field of single-bed wards in critical care. 8th European Conference on Noise Control, Edinburgh, UK (invited)

Xie H, 2009. Sustainability assessment and integrated strategies. City of Chongqing, Youth Talent Forum 2009 at the University of Cambridge, UK (Keynote Speech, invited)

Xie H, 2009. Environmental noise and residents’ social-economic profiles: a case study in Greater London. Internoise 2009, Ottawa, Canada (invited)

Xie H, 2009. Soundscape in urban residential areas in China. 2nd Conference of the International Forum for Contemporary Chinese Studies, Nottingham, UK (invited)

Xie H, 2009. Investigation on the sustainability of Chongqing Municipality. 1st International Exergy, Life Cycle Assessment, and Sustainability Symposium, Nisyros, Greece

Xie H, Kang J, 2008. Agent-based acoustic model for acoustic environment simulation in the hospitals. 2008 Winter Simulation Conference. Miami, Florida

Xie H, Kang J, 2008. Acoustic environment in hospitals from the staff’s perspective: An approach using the grounded theory. InterNoise 2008. Shanghai, China

Xie H, Kang J, 2008. A systematic review on the influence of noise on patients' sleep in the Intensive Care Units. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123(5): 3194

Xie H, Kang J, 2008. An agent-based approach to acoustic environment simulation in hospitals. The Second International Health and Social Care Modelling Conference, Portrush, Northern Ireland

Xie H, 2007. Investigation of the noise attenuation from outdoor to indoor of typical residential buildings in China. International Symposium on Room Acoustics (ISRA) 2007 Sevilla Proceedings, Sevilla

Xie H, Li B S, Zheng J, 2006. Evaluation of indoor environment quality of urban residential buildings in Chongqing. PLEA2006, Geneva, Switzerland, September 2006, Vol.2, 553-558

Xie H, Li B S, Hou S J, 2006. Introduction of the latest popular green building assessment system in the world. The 5th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies (SET), Vicenza, Italy