Acoustics Education Research Articles

Time-frequency analysis for acoustics education and for listening to whales in the Gulf of Mexico

Time-frequency plots continue to be used in many varied applications. One particularly advantageous use is in acoustics courses accessible to non-science majors, students who are often frightened of mathematics and/or physics. All musicians as well as many others can read and understand music scores (time-frequency plots). Time-frequency plots are extremely useful in explaining the differences in timbre of the same pitch coming from different musical instrument families, from individual instruments themselves, and from different human voices. Examples are given from the first of a UNO two-semester sequence on the Physics of Music (textbook by Rossing!). The second semester of this sequence includes recording and reproduction of music, and time-frequency plots are again very useful. Investigation of acoustic signals for research also benefits from the use of time-frequency plots. The study of marine mammals is enhanced by analysis of underwater acoustic recordings. Examples of both the sounds of and the time-frequency plots for sperm whale clicks in the northern Gulf of Mexico are presented. Seismic airgun shots from oil industry exploration can be heard on the recordings as well as the whale clicks.

4-231 エレキギターとアナログ・エフェクターを用いた高大連携授業における音響教育((09)ものつくり教育-V/(07)高大院連携-I)

4-231 エレキギターとアナログ・エフェクターを用いた高大連携授業における音響教育((09)ものつくり教育-V/(07)高大院連携-I)

Prof. Dah-You Maa’s Contribution to Acoustics

In his life-long career pursuing, Professor Dah-You Maa contributed greatly in many areas of acoustics, not only in acoustical research and development, but also in the promotion of acoustical education, application, and legislation. Professor Maa presented a simplified method for calculation of normal modes for room acoustics, invented micro-perforated panel absorbers and micro-perforation jet mufflers, gave a formula of jet noise power via air pressure, and acoustically designed the first and biggest Congress Hall, built the first set of acoustical laboratories, and established the acoustical standard system in China. He also supervised tens of postgraduate students working in environmental acoustics, building acoustics, speech signal processing, nonlinear acoustics, and active noise control. In this paper, the main contribution of Professor Maa is introduced. Several of his typical research works, such as micro-perforated panel absorbers and micro-perforation jet mufflers, are explained in detail, from which we can well appreciate the physical insights and theoretical skills of Professor Maa.

Alfred M. Mayer and Acoustics in Nineteenth-Century America

Summary Througout the nineteenth century, acoustics or the science of sound in America lagged behind European acoustics which had been rapidly advancing. During this period, the American physicist Alfred M. Mayer made original contributions to acoustics and earned a reputation in Europe, filling a gap in late nineteenth-century American research in acoustics. Lacking fellowship with American acousticians, he was affiliated with the European community of research in acoustics in various respects such as taking up themes of research, employing experimental instruments, learning the practice of research, and adopting specific theories for research. In addition, he tried to naturalise acoustics on American soil by applying expertise to practical problems and creating specialised experimental setups for acoustics education in America. But his research was not taken advantage of by the next generation of American acousticians, who focused on practical technologies such as telephony, the control of noise, and underwater acoustics.

Analysis of a homemade Edison tinfoil phonograph

Thomas Edison's phonograph was a landmark acoustic invention. In this paper, the phonograph is presented as a tool for education in acoustics. A brief history of the phonograph is outlined and an analogous circuit model that describes its dynamic response is discussed. Microphone and scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (SLDV) measurements were made on a homemade phonograph for model validation and inversion for unknown model parameters. SLDV measurements also conclusively illustrate where model assumptions are violated. The model elements which dominate the dynamic response are discussed.

25 years of distance education in acoustics

Online education is quickly becoming a popular means of delivering course content to the masses. Twenty-five years ago this Fall, the Graduate Program in Acoustics at Penn State began offering graduate level instruction in acoustics to students at a distance. In 1987 courses were offered via satellite links to Navy and industry labs, with PictureTel video conferencing to two centralized locations added in 1992. By 1994 videotapes allowed for broader content distribution to students at more varied locations. In 2002 videostreaming lectures over the internet expanded the delivery even further. Currently courses are taught to a blended audience of both resident and distance students, with lectures being live streamed over the internet and archived digitally for offline access. This talk will briefly summarize the history and development of online graduate education in acoustics at Penn State. We will discuss the use of technology both as a tool for delivering course content as well as the impact that technology has on the quality and means of instruction and the interaction between teacher and students. The necessary adaptation of teaching styles and the adjustments required to meet the varied needs of a blended student audience will also discussed.

Finite difference simulation methods as an educational tool

Finite difference methods can be a valuable and unexpected tool in acoustics education. As a wave acoustic simulation method, it provides instructive time-domain visualizations particularly useful for illustrating broadband wave effects like diffraction and interference. Furthermore, the knowledge required to implement these simulations can be taught in just a few hours of instruction with or without calculus in contrast to several other wave acoustic methods. The exposition provides opportunities for discussion of basic numerical methods as well as the physics of wave and diffusion processes. We present example projects from students of mixed science, engineering, and music backgrounds. After only four hours of instruction, they were able to independently simulate various room geometries with impedance boundary conditions along with a variety of other acoustical systems. Beyond strictly educational value, this is a flexible and free tool that the modern acoustician can use for research, physics-based sim...

The importance and feasibility of “Reflectivity” as an index applicable for architectural acoustic design

A major part of room acoustics concerns sound control within a space. This traditionally involves reverberation control, music envelopment, optimization of speech comprehension and privacy, noise control, spatial enhancement, modal and reflection control for rooms used in recording, mixing, editing, mastering, and measuring sounds and hearing. In all of these examples, room acoustics is influenced by early reflections from the interior surfaces, objects and geometry. The impedance of a surface generally varies in relation to the incident angle of sound waves, therefore knowing the true reflectivity of surfaces would be complimentary to sound decay time and absorption coefficients. This presentation reviews current trends in the measurement of sound reflectivity as well as many of the challenges involved in developing an approved laboratory measurement methodology. Not only a potentially important tool for acousticians, architects and designers, but a formally adopted “Reflectivity Index” would aid product design, research, and education in room acoustics. Examples of comparative measurements of materials ranging from porous media to continuous or perforated surface assemblies are examined and how the range of results might be unified as a single metric.

K-12 acoustics experiments

Neville Fletcher has been active in many areas of acoustics, including acoustics education. He chaired a committee charged with revamping the science education curriculum in Australia’s elementary and secondary education programs. Neville believes, as do I, in the old maxim: “You hear - you forget, You see - you remember, You do - you understand”. In keeping with that I will discuss a number of basic acoustics experiments adaptable in the elementary and secondary classroom or hands-on laboratory, including speed of sound, musical intervals, the Doppler effect, beats, resonance, spectral analysis and synthesis, musical instruments (violin, clarinet, etc.), the human voice, and sound level.

Honorary Membership of the Acoustical Society of China

The Acoustical Society of China presents Dr. Leo L. Beranek with its first Honorary Membership for his leadership, dedication and contributions to the science of acoustics, to education in acoustics and to the diffusion of knowledge in acoustics throughout the world, as well as to the promotion of Sino-US academic exchanges in acoustics.

Acoustical education in architectural engineering program at the University of Nebraska

An increasing number of schools are offering Architectural Engineering (AE) programs; currently there are 20 schools across the United States. However, only few of these AE programs include acoustics as a main option in their curricula. A comprehensive review of U.S. graduate programs in a report of “Technology for a Quieter America” by the United States National Academy of Engineering found that there is not sufficient training for students in acoustics in the U.S. This presentation will review the Nebraska Acoustics Group, housed within the AE program at the University of Nebraska which began in 1998. To cope with the needs, students could study acoustics within any of our five engineering degree programs (BSAE, MAE, MEng, MS, and PhD). There are currently two AE faculty out of 13 who focus in acoustics at Nebraska, and the program regularly offers at least six recurring acoustics courses. Descriptions of the acoustics courses, the research interests of the Nebraska Acoustics Group, and where our gradua...

Acoustic education and its exploration at NPU

School of Marine Engineering (SME), Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) offers two undergraduate degree programs bearing on the field of acoustics, including information countermeasure and environmental engineering, of which the former is focused on underwater acoustic signal and information processing and the latter on environmental acoustics and noise control. The SME also provides graduate degree programs involving Acoustics, Underwater Acoustic Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Environmental Science leading to a master's degree, among which the former two also possess competency of doctoral education. As a key subject, the education respect to acoustics has developed its own characteristics of teaching reform. The SME is actively involved in fostering the talent of engineering and internationalization among the students. On the one hand, the school is devoted to improve practical and experimental skills of the students. On the other hand, recent years, Acoustics program at the school is gradually promoting its international teaching program.

Teaching acoustics in Communication University of China

There are three specialties with relation to acoustics in Communication University of China. Each specialty has different main courses. The key is how to make good interdisciplinary education between these specialties, so that the students can share different experience and knowledge from both Arts and Science. Practicing is also an important element for acoustics education. The university has good relationship with the industry. The students often have their practical courses and experiments in the corporations and factories. It is a good chance for them to turn their knowledge from books into actual products and experience. In the recent years, more and more students enjoy the benefit from this education strategy in the Communication University of China.

Underwater acoustics education in Harbin Engineering University

Underwater acoustic engineering is a discipline for graduate students' study which is currently famous at 6 schools across China, two of which may offer the undergraduate-level program. Underwater acoustic engineering specialty of Harbin Engineering University derives from the first sonar specialty in China built in 1953, which is the earliest institution engaging in underwater acoustics education in Chinese universities. There are three education program levels in this specialty (undergraduate-level, graduate-level and PhD-level), and students may study underwater acoustics within any of our three programs. In this presentation, descriptions of underwater acoustics education programs, curriculum systems, and teaching contents of acoustics courses will be introduced.

Undergraduate acoustics education in Nanjing University

The acoustics in the Department of Acoustic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, has been evaluated as a state key subject for cultivating acoustic talents from undergraduate students to post-doctoral fellows. Our department prepares undergraduates for entry-level positions in the acoustic field and further education at the master's level. Our educational programs are organized around two overlapping areas: Acoustics and Acoustical signal processing. Core courses include fundamentals of acoustics, acoustic measurement, and acoustic transducer. A series of advanced undergraduate courses have also been developed to provide students with formal training in acoustics, including: electronic acoustics, ultrasonics, architectural acoustics, audio signal processing, active noise control, and etc. The goal of this program is to prepare students with both solid foundation in acoustic science and capabilities in acoustic engineering.

Telecom, Electroacoustics and Audio (TEA) education in two prestigious universities in Taiwan

This presentation gives an overview of the acoustics education by the author's 21-year career in National Chiao-Tung University and National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. Although it is generally recognized that acoustics is an “old” subject in classical physics, it finds many new applications in the modern world. The paradigm of acoustic education of the author is to gear the domain knowledge of acoustics to the needs of main-stream industries in Taiwan, including Computer, Community, Consumer electronics and Car, the so-called 4C industries, with emphasis placed upon telecom acoustics, eletroacoustics and audio signal processing (TEA) involved in the 4C products. To meet the ever changing challenges, a multidisciplinary approach including signal processing and control system is exploited, in addition to acoustics, in the pedagogic methodology. It is hoped that, with these new perspectives, classical acoustics can be rejuvenated within unified framework. In the author's career in education, more than 100 (including 30 in JASA) journal papers have been published, an institute of Sound and Music Innovative Technology (SMIT) and the Telecom acoustics, Eletroacoustics and Audio signal processing (TEA) laboratory have been launched in NCTU and NTHU, respectively, and a monograph on acoustic array systems is currently in preparation.

Education in acoustics and speech science using vocal-tract models

Several vocal-tract models were reviewed, with special focus given to the sliding vocal-tract model [T. Arai, Acoust. Sci. Technol. 27(6), 384-388 (2006)]. All of the models have been shown to be excellent tools for teaching acoustics and speech science to elementary through university level students. The sliding three-tube model is based on Fant's three-tube model [G. Fant, Acoustic Theory of Speech Production (Mouton, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2006)] and consists of a long tube with a slider simulating tongue constriction. In this article, the design of the sliding vocal-tract model was reviewed. Then a science workshop was discussed where children were asked to make their own sliding vocal-tract models using simple materials. It was also discussed how the sliding vocal-tract model compares to our other vocal-tract models, emphasizing how the model can be used to instruct students at higher levels, such as undergraduate and graduate education in acoustics and speech science. Through this discussion the vocal-tract models were shown to be a powerful tool for education in acoustics and speech science for all ages of students.

Student design projects in applied acoustics

This paper describes a series of student projects which are intended to complement theoretical education in acoustics and engineering noise control with practical experience. The projects are also intended to enhance the students' ability to work in a team, to manage a project, and to present their results. The projects are carried out in close cooperation with industrial partners so that the students can get a taste of the professional life of noise control engineers. The organization of such a project, its execution, and some of the results from the most recent student project are presented as a demonstrative example. This latest project involved the creation of noise maps of a production hall, the acoustic analysis of a packaging machine, and the acoustic analysis of a spiral vibratory conveyor. Upon completion of the analysis, students then designed, applied, and verified some simple preliminary noise reduction measures to demonstrate the potential of these techniques.

Reflections and recommendations on writing textbooks in the course of a career in academia

The genesis of this paper was notification to the author that he would receive the 2010 Rossing Prize in Acoustics Education, which carried the responsibility of giving a lecture at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. He decided to draw on his remembrances of writing several textbooks during a 40 year career as a professor to discuss the facets of writing that a faculty member might encounter. This paper is an expanded version of that lecture [J. H. Ginsberg, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 128, 2389 (2010)]. An opening section elucidating the author's experiences as an author is followed by a discussion intended to motivate and encourage those who are undecided about taking on this activity. Suggestions are offered as to how to organize and proceed through a writing project as well as what elements should be included. An explanation of the author's role in the process of producing a printed textbook is provided. Guidance is offered as to how one can focus on writing a book in the face of teaching, research, and personal responsibilities. The closure discusses current trends that endanger the ongoing flow of high quality textbooks.

Creating an active-learning environment in an introductory acoustics course

Research in physics education has indicated that the traditional lecture-style class is not the most efficient way to teach introductory physical science courses at the university level. Current best teaching practices focus on creating an active-learning environment and emphasize the students' role in the learning process. Several of the recommended techniques have recently been applied to Brigham Young University's introductory acoustics course, which has been taught for more than 40 years. Adjustments have been built on a foundation of establishing student-based learning outcomes and attempting to align these objectives with assessments and course activities. Improvements have been made to nearly every aspect of the course including use of class time, assessment materials, and time the students spend out of the classroom. A description of the progress made in improving the course offers suggestions for those seeking to modernize or create a similar course at their institution. In addition, many of the principles can be similarly applied to acoustics education at other academic levels.