Matt Fuller Wins Sennheiser's 2021 LIPA Scholarship

Sound Technology student Matt Fuller has been announced as the winner of Sennheiser's 2021 LIPA Scholarship.

Besides financial support for his tuition, he will receive access to Sennheiser’s network of contacts and the global audio specialist's industry experience. The LIPA Scholarship selection process started back in May when 11 applications were received from the September 2020 intake of the LIPA Sound Technology course.

The applications were reviewed by Tim Sherratt, Strategic Planning Manager at Sennheiser, and Henrik Oppermann, 3D Sound Specialist at Sonosphere, and were whittled down to six students to go onto the second round of the process.

"Those six students were then challenged to use their creative and technical skills to create a three-minute 'Sound Walk'," said Sherratt. "We kept the brief as open as possible to allow the greatest creative freedom."

With the students allowed back onto campus in March following another lockdown in January, the final selection process this year was able to take place in person. On 17 June, the six students presented their work and explained the process and journey they had embarked upon.

"After each student's presentation, they were broken into two teams and given a practical challenge based upon their knowledge and experience of fault finding in a pre-configured PA system with a number of hidden issues. This tested students’ behaviour in a stressful situation and showed their abilities to work together as a team," said Oppermann.

A further selection was then made, and three students, Matt Fuller, Ewan McDonough and Matteo Tondi, were chosen to move on to the final interview round with Sherratt, Oppermann and Jon Thornton, Head of Sound Technology at LIPA.

"It was a very difficult decision to award the scholarship to just one of them as they all were exceptionally good candidates, but ultimately there can be only one winner and the Scholarship was awarded to Matt Fuller," said Oppermann.

"It is a great vote of confidence from Sennheiser to invest in me in this way, and a great motivation to continue to push myself during my time studying at LIPA," said Fuller. "I look forward to being able to make use of the amazing contacts and experience as the world of audio starts to open back up. I'm extremely grateful for the financial support given to me and look forward to further developing as a Sound Technology student through this partnership."

With the application process being fine-tuned every year to reflect changing industry conditions and new audio developments, Sherratt explains how much it means for the audio specialist to be working with LIPA and heading up Sennheiser's Scholarship Selection programme.

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