For information or to connect with the Liang Residency at Qualcomm Institute, please email us at lei-lab@ucsd.edu.
Lei Lab is located in Atkinson Hall at Qualcomm Institute, UC San Diego
We have been listening to the extremes of sound—studying infrasonic and ultrasonic recordings gathered by oceanographers—and began to wonder what might emerge if we turned that same sensitivity toward ourselves. Using similarly high sampling rates, we started recording human-made sounds, including the voice. What we found was unexpected: we are constantly producing a rich field of sound—especially in consonants—that extends far beyond the limits of human hearing, with energetic activity reaching well past 96 kHz.
This discovery opened a new line of inquiry: the presence of biologically meaningful, yet largely unnoticed, high-frequency structures embedded within human sound production.
Some primates are known to communicate ultrasonically. Could it be that humans, too, once inhabited a broader acoustic world—that we produced and perceived sounds now lost to us, gradually slipping beyond our reach as our environments changed, as noise accumulated, as the world grew louder?
Even if there is no clear mapping between signal production and perception, the infrasonic world is astonishing. Working with software developed by our long-time collaborator Zachary Seldess, we began transposing these ultrasonic traces into the audible range. What emerges is a hidden layer of our own sonic existence: an “ultrasonic music” we are always making, but never consciously hear. And when brought into our perceptual field, it reveals itself as something unexpectedly delicate, intricate, and profoundly beautiful. It is otherworldly but of this world!
Tornike Karchkhadze is an audio and music machine learning researcher and composer from Tbilisi, Georgia. He specializes in deep neural sound synthesis, generative models, and
computational creativity. He is currently a researcher in the REACH project, a collaboration
between UC San Diego and IRCAM (Paris), focusing on multi-track music generation and musical source separation. He has industry research experience at Bose and Apple, with publications in collaboration with both. As a composer and artist, he has worked across pop, rock, and experimental music, with projects presented internationally in concert halls, clubs, and exhibition spaces. He will join Apple as an Audio Generative Research Scientist in June 2026.
Keren Shao is an audio and machine learning researcher at UC San Diego, specializing in
singing voice conversion, melody extraction, and deep neural sound synthesis. A UC San Diego Mathematics graduate, he currently develops robust zero-shot voice conversion and AI-driven
improvisation models for the REACH project. Beyond audio, he co-developed Pensieve, an AI-assisted grading platform for STEM coursework. As an interdisciplinary artist, his co-directed AI ensemble performance of Cornelius Cardew’s Treatise won runner-up at the 2024 IEEE Big Data
AI Music Generation workshop.
The Inaudible Ocean is the latest collaboration between composer Lei Liang and oceanographer Joshua Jones at the Lei Lab, and it explores a vast spectrum of audible data, spanning signals from the infrasonic (as low as 10 Hz) to the ultrasonic (up to 160 kHz). For perspective, human music typically occupies a range of 20 to 20 kHz—less than 10% of the frequencies we study.
What renders these signals inaudible to humans? It is not only their frequency range but also their temporal scale. For instance, to perceive the richness of certain echolocation signals, we must transpose their frequencies and decelerate the playback by 10 or even 100 times. This process reveals the intricate acoustic “landscape” of the ocean, where valleys and mountains emerge through awe-inspiring echoes.
The Inaudible Ocean is our journey into the realms beyond human hearing, where technology serves as our tool and curiosity as our compass. Together, scientists and artists craft a “sonic searchlight” to illuminate the hidden wonders of the ocean for our listeners.
SoundConnect fosters meaningful connections between people, the environment, and communities through listening, bridging scientific and artistic disciplines, academic institutions, and local communities. A key focus is co-developing projects with Alaskan, Alaska Native, and Inuit communities to explore the soundscapes of northern and Arctic waters, while engaging the expertise of all involved. This initiative supports students and staff at UCSD and community-based research partners in deepening our connections to heritage and to nature while advancing our understanding of human impacts on the environment. SoundConnect has an important role to play in environmental stewardship through our collaborative work, bringing our human listening experience to come to know some of the most precious natural spaces on earth.
SoundConnect is sponsored through a generous donation from the Farfy Foundation.
Peter Fee took a sabbatical from his role as a high school environmental science teacher to earn a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. In addition to his studies, Peter taught a music and performance course. He combined his expertise in music and science by collaborating with scientist Joshua Jones to create an audio timeline where 1 second = 1 day titled “Arctic Soundscape: July 27, 2015 – August 4, 2016,” featured at the Anchorage Museum.
Timothy Gmeiner is a San Diego, California-based interdisciplinary artist-educator and music producer. He has worked as the Assistant Producer/Director at the Qualcomm Institute’s Audio Spatialization Lab and is currently enrolled in UC San Diego’s Computer Music PhD program where he focuses on spatialized and interactive compositions in virtual reality, non-linear audiovisual live performance, and large-scale real-time reactive installations. His prior artistic work has garnered public acclaim from artists and publications such as Portishead, King Britt, Rolling Stone, and Pitchfork. He is currently a professor of music production and entrepreneurship at San Diego City College.
Yuemeng (Lindsey) Gu is an Interdisciplinary Computing Artist and UI/UX designer focusing on everyday experiences as evidence and inspirations for her work. She is an undergraduate student at UC San Diego, double-majoring in Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts and Cognitive Science (Design & Interaction). With an eye for detail, she explores the relationship between humans and the surrounding world, capturing moments of harmony and juxtapositions of technologies and arts. Born in China and later moved to California, her work as an international artist focuses on the intersection and merging between cultures.