ASA Membership

2014-2015 Technical Committee Reports

Technical Committees represent thirteen different areas of acoustics in the Society. Appointments to the Technical Committees take place in January. Members who are interested in being appointed to a technical comittee should send a message to asa@aip.org.

Acoustical Oceanography (AO)
Animal Bioacoustics (AB)
Architectural Acoustics (AA)
Biomedical Acoustics (BA)
Engineering Acoustics (EA)
Musical Acoustics (MU)
Noise (NS)
Physical Acoustics (PA)
Psychological and Physiological Acoustics (PP)
Signal Processing in Acoustics (SP)
Speech Communication (SC)
Structural Acoustics and Vibration (SA)
Underwater Acoustics (UW)


 

Acoustical Oceanography

This annual report reviews activities of the Technical Committee on Acoustical Oceanography (TCAO) from the 170th and 171st meetings of Acoustical Society of America (ASA) held in Jacksonville, Florida, in fall 2015 and Salt Lake City, Utah, in spring 2016, respectively. It has been a strong year for AOTC, with many well-attended sessions, a number of recipients of prestigious prizes and awards, and a resurgence in the number of student papers presented.

Two well-attended special sessions were organized by the TCAO at the Jacksonville meeting: 1) “Acoustics of High Latitude Oceans,” joint with SP, UW, and AB, chaired by Aaron Thode (Scripps) and co-organized by John Colosi (Naval Postgraduate School), and 2) “Passive-Acoustic Inversion Using Sources of Opportunity,” joint with SP and UW, co-chaired by Karim Sabra (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Kathleen Wage (George Mason University). In addition, there were 3 special sessions that AO co-sponsored: 1) “Direction of Arrival (DOA) Estimation, Source Localization, Classification, and Tracking Using Small Aperture Arrays,” co-sponsored with SP and UW and co-chaired by R. Lee Culver, (ARL, Penn State University) and Geoffrey H. Goldman, (US Army Research Laboratory), 2) “50 Years of Underwater Acoustics under ASA,” co-sponsored with UW, AB, and SP, chaired by David Bradley (Penn State University) and co-organized by John Colosi (Naval Postgraduate School), and 3) “Bioacoustics Research In Latin America,” co-sponsored with AB and co-organized by Juliana R. Moron (Universida de Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brazil) and Marie Trone (Valencia College). A very-well attended AO Hot Topics talk entitled Hot topics in “cold” acoustical oceanography was presented by Grant B. Deane (Marine Physical Laboratories, Scripps, University of San Diego), complementing the earlier session on the acoustics of  high-latitudes. One of the highlights of this meeting was the 2015 Munk Award Lecture given by Carl Wunsch, an Emeritus Professor of Physical Oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, during the Wednesday afternoon plenary session, entitled “Ocean acoustic tomography: Past, present, and maybe future”. The Munk Award is granted jointly by The Oceanography Society, the Office of Naval Research, and the Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy for distinguished research in oceanography related to sound and the sea. There were also an encouraging number of student papers presented, with the first place prize given to Katherine Wolfe, from the Georgia Institute of Technology, for her paper entitled “Optimized extraction of coherent arrivals from ambient noise correlations in a rapidly fluctuating medium, with an application to passive acoustic tomography”, and second place prize given to Graham Warner, from the University of Victoria, for his paper entitled “Environmental inversion using bowhead whale calls in the Chukchi Sea”.

               The Salt Lake City meeting was punctuated by the presentation of the 2016 R. Bruce Lindsay Award to Megan S. Ballard, a member of the AOTC, for contributions to underwater acoustic propagation modeling and inversion techniques in acoustical oceanography. The R. Bruce Lindsay Award is presented in the spring to a member of the Society who is under 35 years of age and who has been active in the affairs of the Society and has contributed substantially, through published papers, to the advancement of theoretical or applied acoustics, or both. Also at Salt Lake City, the 2016 Medwin Prize was awarded to Thomas Weber from the University of New Hampshire, also an AOTC member. The prize award lecture will be presented at the Hawaii meeting. The Medwin Prize recognizes the accomplishments of young and mid- career scientists involved in research that addresses the effective use of sound in the discovery and understanding of physical and biological parameters and processes in the sea. The new incoming TCAO chair was announced at Salt Lake City, and a hearty congratulations goes to John Colosi (Naval Postgraduate School). There were three well-attended special sessions organized by the TCAO at the Salt Lake City meeting: “Acoustic Consistency of Ocean Models,” co-sponsored by SP, and organized by Tim Duda (WHOI) and Bruce Cornuelle (Scripps), 2) “Noise Impacts from the Industrialization of the Outer Continental Shelf and High Seas,” co-sponsored by AB, and organized by Michael stocker (Ocean Conservation Research), and 3) “Acoustical Oceanographic Tools for the Study of Marine Ecosystems,”  co-sponsored by AB, and organized by David Barclay (Dalhousie University) and Wu-Jung Lee (Johns Hopkins University). Though the TCAO seems to be generally skeptical of live broadcasting of special sessions, the latter two special sessions were broadcast live and seemed to enjoy strong on-line attendance. In addition, there was a special session on “Sediment Characterization Using Direct and Inverse Techniques,” that AO co-sponsored with SP and UW and which was co-chaired by David Knobles (KSA LLC) and Preston Wilson (University of Texas at Austin). There were again a very healthy number of student papers presented, with the first place prize given to Scott Loranger, from the University of New Hampshire, for his paper entitled “An evaluation of the frequency response of hydrocarbon droplets”, and the second place prize was a tie between Jacquelyn Kubicko, for her paper entitled “Passive ocean acoustic tomography using ships as sources of opportunity recorded on an irregularly spaced free-floating array: A feasibility study”, and Graham Warner, for his paper entitled “Time-difference-of-arrival localization of bowhead whales using asynchronous recorders”.

This report is my last as Chair of the AO Technical Committee. I want to close by thanking the volunteers who made the activities of the AO Technical Committee possible this year. I look forward to continuing to work with the AO Technical Committee and the ASA community more broadly.

 

Andone Lavery
Chair, 2014-2016

Acoustical Oceanography Website

 


 

Animal Bioacoustics

It’s been a busy and productive year at TC AB, with many special sessions at the two ASA conferences (Jacksonville, FL, November 2015; and Salt Lake City, UT, May 2016) and a large number of student presentations. We’ve seen the first sessions being streamed live online—very successfully. The ASA’s Strategic Plan was released and the ASA began starting its implementation by setting up four task forces on which TC AB is, of course, represented.

In Jacksonville, FL, TC AB (co-)hosted sessions on: Comparative Neurophysiology of the Auditory System in Honor of Albert Feng; Acoustics of High Latitude Oceans; Direction of Arrival (DOA) Estimation, Source Localization, Classification, Tracking using Small Aperture Arrays; Soundscape and its Application; Bioacoustics Across Disciplines: Detecting and Analyzing Sounds; Bioacoustics Across Disciplines: Emitting Sound; Bioacoustics Poster Session; 50 Years of Underwater Acoustics under ASA; Avian Bioacoustics; Bioacoustics Research In Latin America; and New Discoveries in Bat Vocal Communication.

We had 21 entries for TC AB student presentation awards. The oral presentation award went to Grace Smarsh, Singing away from home: Song is used to create and defend foraging territories in the African megadermatid bat, Cardioderma cor. The poster presentation award was won by Yumi Saito, Rats became positive or negative states when listening to specific vocalizations.

In Salt Lake City, UT, TC AB (co-)hosted sessions on: Comparative Hearing Honoring Dick Fay; Cetacean Bioacoustics; AB General Poster Session; Effects of Noise on Animals; Airborne Automatic Animal Bioacoustics; Noise Impacts from the Industrialization of the Outer Continental Shelf and High Seas; and

Acoustical Oceanographic Tools for the Study of Marine Ecosystems.

Due to this being a smaller meeting than the one before, TC AB had fewer student entries for its student presentation awards, which were won by Adrienne M. Copeland, Relative abundance of sound scattering organisms in the NW Hawaiian islands is a driver for some odontocete foragers; and Marielle Malfante, Automatic fish sounds classification.

Thanks to Ben Taft, our TPOM for both the Jacksonville and Salt Lake City meetings.

Special sessions suggested for future ASA meetings can be found on the TC AB website.

TC AB Technical initiatives that were approved in the past year are student and postdoc travel support to the International Congress of Neuroethology in Montevideo, Uruguay, 2016; to the Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life conference in Dublin, Ireland, 2016; to an Airgun Modeling Workshop in Dublin, Ireland, 2016; to the SeaBASS summer school in Pennsylvania, USA, 2016; to the Listening for Aquatic Mammals in Latin America Workshop, 2016; and to the Animal Acoustic Communication conference in Omaha, Nebraska, 2017.

TC AB is actively involved in the development of acoustic standards. We currently have working groups on Underwater Passive Acoustic Monitoring for Bioacoustic Applications; Description and Measurement of the Ambient Sound in Parks, Wilderness Areas, and Other Quiet and/or Pristine Areas; Noise and Vibration in Animal Laboratory Facilities; and Evoked Potential Testing of Toothed Whale Hearing. Anybody interested in participating, please contact TC AB.

Last but not least, JASA is looking for additional Associate Editors in AB.

Thank you to all the members of TC AB for your support and involvement in the various activities of the ASA.

 

Christine Erbe
Chair, 2016-2019

Animal Bioacoustics Website

 


 

Architectural Acoustics

Once again the Technical Committee on Architectural Acoustics (TCAA) continues its focus on:
1. A rich diversity and relevance at ASA Conference Events
2. Outreach and Advocacy in the discipline during and between commences
3. A steady Focus on Future Growth
…In a manor to promote continuity and organizational vitality.

TCAA Organizational Abstract:
The state of the TCAA is very healthy due to the long history of visionary professionals that have lead passionately over the years.
A key to the health of TCAA is the professional diversity in application ranging from Academic, Research, Consultants, Manufactures, Architects, and more. This diversity provides stability in economically adverse cycles, a rich pool of talent and serving capacity, as well as “full loop” interest from concept and research to application and solution.
Another key to the health and vitality of TCAA is leadership development. The TC develops leadership, experience and continuity by promoting team over point person approach in a verity of important roles. As example the TCAA Chair appoints a secretary to a) assist in the chair’s functions and b) learn the process, procedures and duties of the chair developing an excellent candidate as future chair. We are moving forward to implement a similar continuity model across the Medals & Awards, Members, and other Committees and Subcommittees.

ASA Conference Events
The productivity of ASA members focused on Architectural Acoustics (AA) continues to be reflected in the numerous special sessions, organized by specialists passionate about a topic, and populated by authors generous to advance it.
Spring 2015 Pittsburgh:
The spring 2015 meeting in Pittsburgh; We welcomed 93 attendees in our Technical Committee meeting including a healthy student participation of 22. TCAA sponsored 90 papers across 12 special sessions.
Thank you Robert Keolian and Matthew Poese for serving as General Co-Chairs, Jennifer Miksis-Olds for serving as Technical Program Chair, and Damian Doria & David T Bradley as our Technical Program Organizing Meeting representatives.
Fall 2015 Jacksonville:
The fall 2015 conference in Jacksonville; TCAA sponsored 67 papers and posters across 8 special sessions. A Special thanks to Damian Doria & David T Bradley as our Technical Program Organizing Meeting representatives. The TCAA welcomed 91 attendees in our Technical Committee meeting.
Spring 2016 Salt Lake City:
The spring 2016 meeting in Salt Lake City; We welcomed 101 attendees in our Technical Committee meeting including a healthy student participation. TCAA sponsored 102 papers across 10 special sessions.
Thank you Damian Doria & Ian Hoffman for serving a TPO for this meeting
As one of the only, if not the only TC to have a live, in meeting election for TC Chair, the election was held at the SLC meeting and Congratulations to Erica Ryherd for being elected the new TCAA Chair. As her first act as Chair Erica asked Eric Reuter to serve as TCAA Secretary which Eric graciously accepted to serve.

Outreach and Advocacy efforts took many forms this year:
American Institute of Architects Continuing Education System
The Technical Committee on Architectural Acoustics (TCAA) continues to be a Registered Provider in the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Continuing Education System (CES). The TCAA has developed a standardized introductory short course for architects, called “Architectural Acoustics”. An architect can earn one continuing education unit (CEU) by attending this short course, if it is presented by a qualified member of TCAA. The course covers topics in sound isolation, mechanical system noise control, and finish treatments. The qualifications to be an authorized presenter are: 1) Current ASA member in good standing, 2) Current TCAA member in good standing 3) Has attended the AIA/CES short course, organized and offered periodically at ASA conventions.
Publications from and related to Architectural Acoustics
With special thanks to Erica Ryherd, David Bradley, and Lauren Ronsse the “Worship Space Acoustics: 3 Decades of Design” book has been published. This follows a proven concept as demonstrated most recently in the drama theater book.
Classroom Acoustics information booklets continue to serve as a companion for ANSI S12.60 standard, with architects, educators and parents as the target audiences.
WG44; Members of TCAA joint with TCNoise, have completed the draft of S12.70 Standard for Speech Privacy in Healthcare. The final draft is in review at the time of this report.
The TCAA body is fully engaged and supportive of the Strategic Leadership Plan for the Future.

Our Focus on Future Growth is realized in the following ways:
Students, diversity in application participation, and industry relevance.
Student paper awards
TCAA Student Paper Award competitions continue to run at each biannual ASA conference. We congratulate the following students
Results from Pittsburgh:
1st Place: David Dick, Pennsylvania State University 4pAA12. Evaluation of a three-way omnidirectional sound source for room impulse response measurements
2nd Place: Kelsey Hochgraf, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 4aAA8. Simulation and auralization of a concert hall’s inhomogeneous sound field using finite difference time-domain methods and wave field synthesis

Results from Jacksonville:
1st Place: Coralie A. van Reenen; University of Pretoria “A case study investigation of the indoor environmental noise in four urban South African hospitals” Agenda TCAA Salt Lake City 2016 7
2nd Place: K.J. Bodon; Brigham Young University “Development, evaluation, and validation of a high-resolution directivity measurement system for live musical instruments” Continues to be a very active program. Thanks to everyone who helps out with this program, including judges and session chairs.
Lastly, I wish to highlight and thank the key leadership of the relevant committees related to architectural acoustics.
• Archives and History (Vic Sparrow)
• Education (David T. Bradley)
• Medals and Awards (Bennett Brooks)
• Membership (Tony Hoover)
• Standards (Ange Campanella)
• Student Council (Jay Bliefnick)
• Public Policy (Ken Roy, Nancy Timmerman, David Lubman)
• College of Fellows (Tony Hoover)
• Tutorials (Michelle Vigeant)
Also thanks to Sean Browne who has coordinated with Dan and maintained our website.
The Associate Editors in Architectural Acoustics are Lily Wang, Frank Sgard, Jason Summers , Michael Vorländer and Ning Xiang for JASA, & JASA Express Letters with Lauren Ronsse is our POMA editor. And a special thanks to Erica Ryherd who has served on Women in Acoustics and as the Secretary of our technical committee.
Last a thank you to all the folks who lead and serve on our numerous subcommittees and session organizers. It is a privilege to serve such an amazing group of people.

Kenneth W. Good Jr.
Chair, 2014–2016

Architectural Acoustics Website

 


 

Biomedical Acoustics

Biomedical Acoustics Website

 


 

Engineering Acoustics

As the new incoming Chair of Engineering Acoustics, I want to thank all the veteran members that made this first effort go as smoothly as it did. It is a lot harder on the speaker side of the podium. Thanks go to the EA members that serve on the various committees:
Student Council, Caleb Sieck
Medals and Awards, Gary Elko
Membership, Steve Thompson
JASA Assoc. Ed, Tom Howarth
Website Update, Roger Richards
ASACOS, Roger Logan
Fall 2015 Jacksonville
The best student paper was given by Ellen Skow of the Georgia Institute of Technology for her paper “Pressure ripple amplification within a hydraulic pressure energy harvester via Helmholtz resonator”.
Engineering Acoustics (EA) sponsored the following sessions:
2aEAb: Engineering Acoustics: Analysis of Sound Sources
Chair Kenneth M. Walsh
2pEA: Engineering Acoustics (EA) Analysis of Sound Sources, Receivers, and Attenuators
Chair Kenneth M. Walsh
Spring 2016 Salt Lake City
A series of unforeseeable events ended with me in St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore. Roger Richards did an outstanding job of standing in for me at Salt Lake City.
Engineering Acoustics (EA) sponsored the following sessions:
2aEAb: Engineering Acoustics: General Topics in Engineering Acoustics I Chair Roger Richards
2pEA: Engineering Acoustics: General Topics in Engineering Acoustics II

Kenneth J. Walsh
Chair 2016-2019

Engineering Acoustics Website

 


 

Musical Acoustics

During 2015-2016 the Technical Committee on Musical Acoustics (TCMU) was chaired by Andrew Morrison. The representatives to the Society committees were: James P. Cottingham, Medals and Awards; Andrew Morrison, Committee on Standards and the Publication Policy Committee; James Beauchamp, Membership; and Martin Lawless, Student Council. Associate editors of the society publications for the area of musical acoustics were Diana Deutsch, Thomas Moore and Joe Wolf (JASA); Diana Deutsch, D. Murray Campbell, and Thomas Moore (JASA Express Letters); and Randy Worland (POMA). The Technical Program Organizing Committee (TPOM) representatives for the two meetings of the ASA were Andrew Morrison (Jacksonville and Salt Lake City). Those appointed or reappointed as TCMU members during the year were: Edgar J. Berdahl, Judith C. Brown, Courtney B. Burroughs, Thomas M. Huber, Wilfried Kausel, Bozena Kostek, Timothy W. Leishman, Daniel O. Ludwigsen, Thomas D. Rossing, Daniel A. Russell, David B. Sharp, Julius O. Smith, William J. Strong, Joe Wolfe, Chris Jasinski, Andrew Miller, and Robert Mores.

At the 170th meeting of the ASA in Jacksonville, FL, Nov 02, 2015 to Nov 06, 2015, the TCMU sponsored two special sessions and one general session. The four special sessions were: Slip-stick musical instrument (Thomas Moore, chair), and Evolution of Historical Instrument from then until now (Whitney Coyle, chair). TCMU cosponsored two sessions: Education in Acoustics and Musical Acoustics: Effective and Engaging Teaching Methods in Acoustics (co-sponsored with EdCom) and Directivities of Musical Instruments and Their Effects in Performance Environments, Room Simulations, Acoustical Measurements, and Audio (co-sponsored with TCAA). Winners of the award for best student papers were Sarah R. Smith and Tim Ziemer.

At the 171st ASA meeting in Salt Lake City, UT, May 23-27, 2016, the TCMU sponsored one general and four special sessions. The special sessions were: Teaching Musical Acoustics all levels all types (Jack Dostal and Martin Lawless, chairs), A session in honor of Bill Strong (Tom Rossing, chair), Voice Registration in Amplified and Unamplified Singing (Ingo Titze, chair), and Pitch, Dynamics, and Vowel Tuning in Choral Voice (Ingo Titze, chair.) TCMU cosponsored a session: Analysis of Vibration Based Musical Instruments (co-sponsored with TCSA). Michael Denison and Mark Rau won the awards for Best Student Papers.

James Cottingham continues to maintain an excellent website for TCMU, which can be accessed at (http://www.tcmuasa.org). It includes links to future meetings, minutes of previous TCMU meetings, annual reports, student paper award winners, and useful links to teaching websites and musical acousticians.

Andrew J. Morrison
Chair, 2014-2017

Musical Acoustics Website

 


 

Noise

Noise Website

 


 

Physical Acoustics

170th Meeting of the ASA in Jacksonville, FL

Special Sessions for the 170th meeting included: Phononic Metamaterials (Joel Mobley), Acoustic Characterization of Critical Phenomena (Josh Gladden & Veerle Keppens), General Topics in Physical Acoustics I & II (Mike Haberman), Launch Vehicle Acoustics I & II: Acoustics of Launch Vehicles and Supersonic Jets (Kent Gee & Tracianne Neilsen)

This meeting marked the first to include Live Streaming of select sessions as a pilot project.  The Acoustic Characterization of Critical Phenomena session was streamed.  Comments from remote viewers were generally very positive and some suggestions were incorporated for the next meeting.

The PATC Twitter feed (@ASAcousticsPATC) went live for this meeting. It was quickly recognized that more social media savvy people need to be involved with generating tweets. Volunteers are welcome and can contact Josh Gladden (jgladden@olemiss.edu).

171st  Meeting of the Acoustical Society in Salt Lake City, UT

PATC Special Sessions for the 171st meeting included: Atmospheric Acoustic Phenomena (Jericho Cain, John Paul Abbott), Computational Methods in Physical Acoustics (Amanda Hanford, Keith Wilson), Multiple Scattering (Valerie Pinfield), Vortex Beams and Radiation Torque Physics (Likun Zhang, Philip Marston), Nuclear-powered thermoacoustics (Steve Garrett)

The Live Streaming pilot project expanded from 4 sessions in the 170th meeting to 19 sessions for this meeting.  This level is hitting a threshold for the volunteer Task Force to handle.

The new ASA Organization Chart was presented and discussed.  There was general agreement that the changes were positive and reflective of the Strategic Plan.

The upcoming Physical Acoustics Summer School was discussed.  24 graduate students representing 16 universities and 4 countries have been accepted.  This represents the broadest group of students to attend a PASS and will likely lead to larger applicant pools in the future.  Funding PASS remains a challenge and various options are being explored to augment ASA support including charitable donations, Federal support, and corporate support.

The Long Range Sound Symposium will be held in Oxford, MS on Sept. 20-21, 2016 and hosted by the National Center for Physical Acoustics.  Roger Waxler (rwax@olemiss.edu) is organizing the meeting.

There was discussion about forming a Computational Acoustics Specialty Group.  Researchers in this area cut across a wide range of Technical Committees. To formally create a Specialty Group, 50 members must claim this as their primary research area.  This effort is being led by Keith Wilson (David.K.Wilson@erdc.dren.mil) and Amanda Hanford (ald227@psu.edu).

Josh R. Gladden
Chair, 2014-2017

Physical Acoustics Website

 


 

Psychological and Physiological Acoustics

The P&P held no special sessions during the fall meeting in Jacksonville but some members of our area traveled to the meeting to attend the Award Ceremony during which Roy Patterson received the Silver Medal Award. Roy chose to receive his award during the fall meeting to make it possible for David Green, one of the P&P greatest researchers who is now retired, to join the celebration.

Our members continued their significant involvement in the Society. The past-President, Judy Dubno, and the past-Vice President, Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, completed their three-year leadership cycle at the conclusion of the spring meeting. Andrew Oxenham is currently a member of the Executive Council.

The spring meeting in Salt Lake City was well-attended by the P&P members. The P&P was the main sponsor of six special sessions: “Approaches to Improve Speech Understanding in Noise” organized by Eric Healy, Ying-Yee Kong, and Tao Zhang, “Acoustic Outreach to Budding Scientists: Planting Seeds for Future Clinical and Physiological Collaborations” organized by Anna Diedesch and Adrian K. C. Lee, “Quantitative Methodology in Both Physiological and Psychophysical Data Analysis Workshop” organized by Daniel McCloy, Ross Maddox, and Hari Bharadwaj, “Beyond the Audiogram: Influence of Supra-threshold Deficits” organized by Agnes Leger, and Christopher Plack, “Lessons from Interrupted Speech: Methods and Models” organized by Valeriy Shafiro, and “Spatial Hearing” organized by Ewan Macpherson. All special sessions met with a great interest and were well received. Two of the special sessions were live-streamed and the comments from P&P members unable to attend the meeting who logged on to remotely participate were very positive.

            Alan Palmer (University of Nottingham, UK) was the fourth recipient of the William and Christine Hartmann Prize in Auditory Neuroscience. Alan delivered a fascinating Auditory Neuroscience Prize Lecture entitled “Bridging the chasm: Animal physiology and human psychophysics” mixing a great scientific content with a dose of great British humor. The lecture attracting many more people than the room could hold.

Ian Bruce, Micheal Dent, Karen Helfer, and Christopher Stecker became new Fellows of the Society.

            The P&P Technical Committee meeting in Salt Lake City was well attended and was live-streamed. During the meeting, reports were given by the JASA Associate Editors for Psychological and Physiological Acoustics, JASA-EL, and POMA. The following Technical Committee members were thanked for their three-year service on the Committee: Michael A. Akeroyd, Richard L. Freyman, Adrian K. C. Lee, Ruth Y. Litovsky, Ewan A. Macpherson, Dorea R. Ruggles, and Christopher Stecker. The following six members started their three-year term at the meeting in Salt Lake City: Huanping Dai, Karen Helfer, Pamela Souza, Elizabeth Strickland, Sarah Verhulst, Matthew Winn. We also held our annual elections to select new members of the P&P Technical Committee whose term will begin at the meeting in Boston (spring, 2017). The following members were elected: Joshua Bernstein,  Emily Buss, Hari Bharadwaj, Monita Chatterjee, Ross Maddox, Christopher Shera, and Christian Stilp. Many thanks to Ying-Yee Kong and Anna Diedesch for running the elections and counting the ballots during the meeting.

We thank Christopher Brown for being our representative at the remotely-held Technical Program Organizing Meeting (TPOM) for the meeting in Salt Lake City.

We also thank Erica Hegland for maintaining and updating the P&P webpage on the ASA website.

P&P members serve on a number of ASA Committees. Brenda Lonsbury-Martin was nominated by the ASA President, Christy Holland, for the Chair of the Medals and Awards Committee. Judy Dubno became the P&P representative on this committee. Adrian K. C. Lee agreed to be our liaison to the Committee on Education in Acoustics. Adrian also volunteered for the Task Force working on improving the process of publication in JASA and JASA-EL.

We extend special thanks to Anna Diedesch for her excellent service as the P&P representative to the Student Council. Anna’s term ended this spring and our new representative is Kelly Whiteford, a student from the University of Minnesota.

The P&P Technical Committee will continue traditional Technical Initiatives, which include travel support for invited speakers, student receptions, and homepage updating, while also focusing on implementing innovative initiatives such as workshops and satellite meetings facilitating collaborations and attracting new members from underrepresented research areas (clinical, physiological, industry, education) to the Society. Suggestions for uses of P&P Technical Committee funds for new Technical Initiatives are welcome and should be sent to the Chair of the P&P Technical Committee.

Magdalena Wojtczak
Chair, 2014-2017

Psychological and Physiological Acoustics Website

 

 


 

Signal Processing in Acoustics

The Technical Committee on Signal Processing in Acoustics (TCSP) had a very productive year with a wide ranging set of special sessions that attracted much interest and an impressive set of candidates for our Best Young Presenter Awards.

In Jacksonville, diverse issues associated with localizing acoustic sources continued as an important area of inquiry for our community. The meeting brought together researchers in special sessions on “Direction of Arrival (DOA) Estimation, Source Localization, Classification, and Tracking Using Small Aperture Arrays” organized and chaired by Lee Culver (Penn State Univ.)  and Geoffrey Goldman (US Army Res. Lab).  The technical challenges that attend some of the most fundamental issues in acoustic detection and estimation were addressed during a special session on “Random Matrix Theory in Acoustics and Signal Processing” organized and chaired by Jim Preisig (JPAnalytics). Jacksonville also saw an abundance of contributed talks in two well attended sessions,  “Detection, Feature Recognition, and Communication” chaired by Geoffrey Edelmann and  “Algorithm, Analysis, and Beamforming” chaired by John Buck (UMassD).

The TCSP was very proud at the Jacksonville meeting to see Brian G. Ferguson, Principal Scientist, Maritime Division, Defence Science and Technology Organization, Australia receive the Acoustical Society of America's Silver Medal in Signal Processing in Acoustics for contributions to in-air and in-water acoustic classification, localization and tracking.

At Salt Lake City we had 4 vibrant special sessions. We saw new and practical research on the topic of “Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Detection, Tracking, and Classification” organized and chaired by Lee Culver and Geoffrey Goldman and a special session on Acoustic Array Systems and Signal Processing organized and co-chaired by Mingsian Bai (National Tsing Hua Univ.) and John Buck (Univ. MA Dartmouth).  Signal processing issues associated with matched field processing continued to draw attention with a special session “Comparison of Beamforming, Matched-Field Processing, and Time Reversal Techniques” organized and co-chaired by Brian Anderson (BYU). We also had a special session on issues associated with “Detection and Estimation in Uncertain Acoustic Environments” organized and chaired by Paul Gendron (UMassD). Lastly, Edmund Sullivan (EJS Consultants) and Brian Anderson chaired a “General Topics in Signal Processing” session bringing together a nice set of acoustic signal processing contributions. 

The TCSP sponsored the 16th Gallery of Acoustics (GoA)  event in Salt Lake City. The GoA provides an open forum for researchers to display novel and aesthetically inspiring acoustical phenomena. The event emphasizes the interdisciplinary, and sometimes even artistic nature of acoustics. The GoA was organized by Michael Muhlestein (UT Austin) and TCSP members served to judge and rank the contributions. This year's first place winner was Brent Reichman with his “Acoustics in Flight” display. The second place winner was Claire Pincock with her “Visual Directivity” display.

            The TCSP continues to sponsor its Best Young Presenter Award with a diverse and talented group of contestants this year. The winner of the 170th Meeting was Atulya Yellepeddi (MIT) with his presentation “The surprising sample covariance matrix: Unexpected characteristics and understanding them“.  The winner at the 171th Meeting in Salt Lake City was Christopher Verlinden (UCSD) for his presentation “Extrapolation of measured correlation replica fields in passive acoustic source localization“. Each winner received an award of $500. Due to the quality and breadth of presentations this year we recognized a number of runner up presentations; Michael-Thomas Ramsey (Nottingham Trent Univ) was recognized for his presentation “Automated detection of honeybee begging signals from long term vibration monitoring of honeybee hives” (170th meeting), Sarah M. Young (BYU), for her presentation “ ‘Knocked Over!’: A visual demonstration of time reversal focusing using bending waves in a thin plate” (171st Meeting) and Danielle Lynd, (OSU), “Acoustic beamfolding, new potentials enabled by interfacing reconfigurable origami and acoustic structures” (171st Meeting). We are very proud of the student presenters that continue to enliven the TCSP and are willing to undergo the scrutiny that attends competing in this challenging environment.

            TCSP is thankful for the conscientious service of Ning Xiang (RPI) and Said Assous (Univ. Weatherford) as Technical Program Organizers for the Jacksonville and Salt Lake City meetings. Many technical and logistic considerations need to be taken into account to ensure a successful meeting and we are indebted to their care and energy.  We welcome Paul Hursky (HLS) as the TCSP Associate Editor for the Proceedings of the Meetings on Acoustics. Paul replaces Sean Lehman. We are also pleased to have John Buck represent the TCSP before the ASA Committee on Education. James Preisig continues to serve as the TCSP representative to the Membership Committee while Edmund Sullivan continues as our representative to the Medals and Awards Committee. Ben Faber (Faber Acoustical) will serve as TCSP representative to the ASA Committee on Standards. Ben replaces Charles Gaumond (Aria)  in this role. Charles is a former TCSP chair and a cherished mentor to many TCSP members. The TCSP website has been exceptionally maintained by Brian Anderson. In Salt Lake City the TCSP was pleased to establish Jeff Rogers (NRL) as the new organizer for the Best Young Presenter in Signal Processing Competition. Jeff replaces Philippe Moquin, who ably served in this role for the past 3 years.

The TCSP is ably served by a talented and conscientious group of associate editors and we are immensely grateful for their patience and careful service this year. The Associate Editors for JASA are Patrick, Loughlin (Univ. of Pittsburgh),  Zoi-Heleni (Eliza) Michalopoulou (New Jersey IT), Karim G. Sabra (Georgia IT) and Kaiman Thomas Wong. Our JASA-EL Associate Editors are Dave Chambers (LLNL) and Charles Gaumond.

We are genuinely excited and eagerly look forward to a wide ranging set of specials sessions that are presently being planned for the coming year's joint meetings with the Acoustical Society of Japan and the European Acoustics Association.

 

Paul Gendron
Chair, 2015–2018

Signal Processing in Acoustics Website 

 

 


 

Speech Communication

Speech Communication Website

 


 

Structural Acoustics and Vibration

The Structural Acoustics and Vibration Technical Committee (SAVTC) had a successful year of special sessions sponsored by the committee and hosted Student and Young Presenter competitions at all of the meetings. This annual report covers SAVTC activities and meetings occurring during the one-year 2015-16 period beginning after the spring 2015 ASA Pittsburgh meeting.
James Phillips ended his three-year term as SAVTC chair at the conclusion of the Pittsburgh meeting and was relieved by Robert Koch who then began his 2015-2018 term as chair of the SAVTC. The SAVTC thanks James for his excellent and active work as chair during 2012-2015.
The SAVTC also extends its gratitude to the many SAVTC members who actively participate as volunteer lead representatives for numerous ASA committee and editorial activities including, but certainly not limited to:
o Robert Koch (ASACOS);
o Sabih Hayek and James Phillips (Medals and Awards);
o Kai Ming Li (Membership Committee);
o Brian Anderson (SAVTC Web page);
o Matthew Kamrath (Student Council and Education in Acoustics Committee);
o Ben Shafer (Student Paper Competition);
o Robert Koch and Ben Shafer (Technical Program Organizers);
o David Feit, Linda Franzoni, Jerry Ginsberg, Andrew Hull, Kai Ming Li, Elizabeth Magliula, Greg McDaniel, Earl Williams, Tribikram Kundu (JASA Associate Editors for SAV);
o Greg McDaniel (JASA Express Associate Editors for SAV).
170th ASA Meeting, Jacksonville, Florida, 2-6 November 2015
At the 170th ASA meeting in Jacksonville, Florida, SAVTC sponsored the following five special sessions and one session of contributed papers with a total of 40 papers presented (22 invited, 18 contributed):
• Nonlinear Techniques for Nondestructive Evaluation: Chair, Brian Anderson
• Transient Nearfield Acoustical Holography: Chair, Nicolas Valdivia
• Structural Acoustics and Vibration in Buildings: Co-chairs, James Phillips and Ben Shafer
• Flow-Induced Vibration: Chair, Robert Koch
• Novel Treatments in Vibration Damping: Chair, Ken Cunefare
• General Topics in Structural Acoustics and Vibration: Chair: Ben Shafer
The TPOM representative was Robert Koch.
SAVTC had 5 papers entered in the Best Student and Young Presenter competition at the 170th ASA Meeting. James Phillips coordinated the competition and the winners were:
1st Place
David Torello, Georgia Institute of Technology
Characterization of air-coupled ultrasonic receivers for nonlinear Rayleigh wave nondestructive evaluation
2nd Place
Ryan Salmon, Georgia Institute of Technology
Solid-liner suppressor design, construction, and development
One committee member was presented an award at the Jacksonville Meeting:
Allan D. Pierce – recipient of the Distinguished Service Citation “for his excellent service to the Acoustical Society of America, and especially for his 15 years of service as Editor-in-Chief”

Following Robert Koch’s 2015 election as SAVTC chair, Ben Shafer agreed to replace him as the on-line Technical Program Organizer (TPO) for SAVTC for the next two years, beginning at the 171st Jacksonville meeting.
A Technical Initiative in the amount of $500 was proposed and approved by the Technical Council at the ASA Jacksonville meeting to support Brian Anderson for SAVTC Website maintenance for each of the years 2016 and 2017.
171st ASA Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, 23-27 May 2016
Fellow member Brian Anderson represented the SAVTC committee well as Technical Program Co-chair of the 171st ASA Salt Lake City, Utah meeting.
At the ASA Salt Lake City meeting, SAVTC sponsored the following six special sessions and one session of contributed papers with a total of 43 papers presented (20 invited, 23 contributed):
• Wavenumber Transform Methods: Chair, Micah Shepard
• Building Isolation from Seismic and Ground-Borne Vibration: Co-Chairs: James Phillips and Hasson Tavossi
• Nuclear-Powered Thermoacoustics: Co-Chairs: James Phillips and Hasson Tavossi
• Real-World Instructive Case Studies in Structural Acoustics and Vibration: Co-Chairs: Robert Koch and Elizabeth Magliula
• Computation Methods in Structural Acoustics and Vibration: Chair: Robert Koch
• Analysis of Vibration Based Musical Instruments: Co-chairs: Dan Russell & Brian Anderson
• General Topics in Structural Acoustics and Vibration: Chair: Ben Shafer
The TPOM representative was Benjamin Shafer.
The winners of the Best Student and Young Presenter competition (out of 12 entrees), coordinated by Ben Shafer, were:
1st Place
Peter Kerrian, Penn State University
The problem of the noisy golf club
2nd Place
Pegah Aslani, Brigham Young University
Experimental active control of cylindrical shells using the weighted sum of spatial gradients control metric
The Salt Lake City meeting represented Matt Kamrath’s last meeting as SAVTC Student Council representative. Tyler “TJ” Flynn has been elected to replace Matthew for the next term as Student Council rep. The SAVTC extends our gratitude and thanks to Matthew for his excellent service to the SAVTC and we look forward to continuing his involvement with the committee going forward in exciting new ways.

Robert M. Koch
Chair, 2015 – 2018

Structural Acoustics and Vibration Website

 

 


 

Underwater Acoustics

This report covers the activities of the Technical Committee on Underwater Acoustics (TCUW) and its members during the period from July 2015 through June 2016.

The 170th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America was held at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida, 2 – 6 November 2015. TCUW sponsored the following four sessions: “50 Years of Underwater Acoustics under the ASA” co-chaired by David L. Bradley and John A. Colosi with seven invited talks and one contributed talk, “Environmental Variability on Shallow Water Acoustics I and II” co-chaired by Brian Hefner, Anthony Bonomo, Kevin Heaney, and Sergio Jesus with four invited talks and 23 contributed talks, and “Communications, Transducers, Target Response, and Nonlinear Acoustics” co-chaired by Raymond Lim and Simon Freeman with 13 contributed talks. The student paper award winners were Brian Worthmann and Dieter Bevans who tied for first place.

The 171st Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America was held at the Salt Lake Marriot Downtown at City Creek Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah, 23 -27 May 2016. TCUW sponsored the following six sessions: “Target Physics and Scattering” chaired by Brian Hefner with 11 contributed talks, “Sediment Characterization Using Direct and Inverse Techniques I, II, and III” co-chaired by David Knobles and Preston Wilson with 13 invited talks and 13 contributed talks, “Acoustic Propagation in the Ocean” chaired by Ying-Tsong Lin with nine contributed talks, and “Underwater Noise” chaired by Stan Dosso with nine contributed talks. Megan Ballard received the R. Bruce Lindsay Award for contributions to underwater acoustic propagation modeling and inversion techniques in acoustical oceanography. The student paper award winners were Viktor Bollen and Michael Bianco who received first and second place, respectively.

The chair thanks the many volunteers who make the activities of TCUW possible.

Megan S. Ballard
Chair, 2015-2018

Underwater Acoustics Website

 

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