Pan-American News (Sep 2016)

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The Pan American I-INCE member societies are:

  • Asociación de Acústicos Argentinos (AdAA) (observer only)
  • Acoustical Society of America (ASA)
  • Acoustical Society of Chile (SOCHA)
  • ASME Noise Control and Acoustics Division (NCAD)
  • Brazilian Acoustical Society (SOBRAC)
  • Brazilian Association for Acoustical Quality (ProAcústica)
  • Canadian Acoustical Association (CAA)
  • INCE-USA

Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

The purpose of ASA (acousticalsociety.org) is to generate, disseminate, and promote the knowledge and practical applications of acoustics. The ASA publishes the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America and holds biyearly meetings.

ASA Meetings

ASA will meet with the Acoustical Society of Japan (ASJ) for the fifth joint meeting of ASA and ASJ, November 28–December 2, 2016, in Honolulu, HI. Over eighty special sessions have been planned.

ASA will meet with the European Acoustics Association (EAA) for Acoustics ’17 Boston (the third joint meeting of ASA and EAA), to be held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA, June 25–29, 2017.

ASA Awards

ASA awards given at the spring 2016 meeting included the Gold Medal to Whitlow Au, University of Hawaii (for contributions to understanding underwater biosonar, and for service to ASA), the Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal to Armen Sarvazyan, Artan Labs (for contributions to ultrasound imaging and its applications), the R. Bruce Lindsay Award to Megan S. Ballard, University of Texas at Austin (for contributions to underwater acoustic propagation modeling and inversion techniques in acoustical oceanography), and the Distinguished Service Citation to Susan B. Blaeser, ASA Standards Secretariat (for dedicated management of the Acoustical Society of America standards program).

ASA will award its Trent-Crede medal to Earl G. Williams, Naval Research Lab., in fall 2016 (for development and application of near-field acoustical holography).

The first Leo and Gabriella Beranek Scholarship in Acoustics and Noise Control was awarded in 2016 to Andrew Hulva of Duke University. The purpose of the scholarship is to support graduate study in the fields of architectural acoustics and noise control. One scholarship will be awarded each year to a student who is a US citizen enrolled in any university that offers a graduate degree program in architectural acoustics or noise control.

ASA Leadership

Michael Stinson, National Research Council of Canada, took office as president and Ronald Roy, University of Oxford, took office as vice president on May 27, 2016.

ASA elected new officers and members of the executive in spring 2016. Marcia Isakson, University of Texas at Austin, is the new president-elect; Michael J. Buckingham, University of California, San Diego, is the new vice president-elect; and Tessa Bent, Indiana University, and Preston S. Wilson, University of Texas at Austin, are the new members of the executive council. Their terms began on May 27, 2016.

ASA Other News

Standards Manager Change
ASA Standards Manager Susan Blaeser retired in May 2016. Her successor is Neil Stremmel, who joined ASA from the United States Bowling Congress where he was managing director.

Education Coordinator Hired
ASA has hired Laquitha Jones as its education coordinator. She will be responsible for developing new activities and programs in acoustics education, as well as to strengthen, improve, and maintain the society’s present endeavors. These include ASA’s new program in K-12 educational outreach and hosting demonstrations for high school students at ASA meetings.

JASA Special Issue on Wind Turbines
A special issue on wind turbines was published as part 2 to the May 2016 issue (volume 139, issue 5) of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. This special issue presents findings of a thorough cross-sectional field study of community response to wind turbines conducted by Health Canada.

ASA Strategic Leadership for the Future
A two-and-a-half-day ASA “Strategic Leadership for the Future Summit” was held in Austin, TX, in January 2015. The summit brought together a cross section of the society to discuss the issues facing the ASA, including publications, finances, membership, and technology. The group created a shared vision for our future from 2015 to 2025. The ASA executive council distilled the summit outcome into four outcome-focused goals and corresponding high-priority objectives. The goals are (1) awareness of acoustics, (2) member engagement and diversity, (3) dissemination of information and knowledge, and (4) financial stewardship.

Significant progress has been made on these strategic goals and the results can be followed on the ASAweb page.

ASME Noise Control and Acoustics Division (NCAD)

The ASME Noise Control and Acoustics Division (NCAD) (https://community.asme.org/noise_control_acoustics_division/default.aspx) is a new member organization to I-INCE and we look forward to this new opportunity to connect with acoustics and noise societies around the world.

ASME NCAD Meetings

Over the past year we participated in two conferences. Annually, we participate in the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE), which will be held November 11–17, 2016, in Phoenix, AZ. Every three years, we also participate in the congress sponsored by I-INCE and hosted by INCE-USA. NCAD sponsored and organized technical sessions at INTER-NOISE 2015 in San Francisco, CA.

We hope to see you at this year’s IMECE in Phoenix, AZ.

ASME NCAD Awards

NCAD acknowledges exceptional achievements by awarding the ASME Per Bruel Gold Medal for Noise Control and Acoustics. This year’s recipient is Dr. David T. Blackstock of The University of Texas at Austin. NCAD also honors annually the Rayleigh plenary lecture, student best paper award, special tutorial lecture, and special achievement for phononic crystals and metamaterials.

ASME NCAD Leadership

The current chair of the group leadership team is Kristin Cody of Naval Nuclear Laboratory, and the vice-chair is Noah Schiller of NASA Langley Research Center. In November, these terms will end and Charlie Zheng of the University of Kansas will be the new chair, with Kristin Cody serving as vice-chair.

ASME NCAD Other News

Peer-reviewed publications are sponsored through conference proceedings and the ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics for which NCAD provides associate editors.

Special thanks go to all of our volunteer members, especially Sue Sung of General Motors (retired) who is chairing the acoustics, vibration, and wave propagation track at IMECE, Ab Kirwan of Electric Boat who is also on our leadership team, and Brent Paul of Alion Science and Technology who provides editorial and administration support.

For more information, please see our annual newsletter and website athttps://community.asme.org/noise_control_acoustics_division/m/default.aspx and like us on Facebook atNCAD (Noise Control and Acoustics Division).

Brazil—ProAcústica

The Brazilian Association for Acoustical Quality (ProAcústica) (www.proacustica.org.br/)—a member society of I-INCE since 2013—is a nonprofit civil entity with the purpose of congregating companies and professionals looking to develop applied acoustics in Brazil, a field that also covers the science of vibrations. The ProAcústica Association was born from the initiative of companies and professionals that identified the opportunity to disclose to all of society the importance of acoustic quality in buildings and the environment, and as a factor of well-being and public health.

Currently, 63 companies are members:

  • 34 manufacturers of acoustic products (54%)
  • 19 acoustic project and consulting firms (30%)
  • 7 installation and distribution companies (11%)
  • 3 laboratories (5%)

ProAcústica Meetings

The third annual city council conference on noise, vibration, and sound disturbance was held in São Paulo, Brazil, April 27–28, 2016. Over three hundred participants attended. A key result of the conference was a law that will require urban noise mapping of targets and timetables for noise reduction in the city.

ProAcústica Leadership

  • Edison Claro de Moraes (AtenuaSom), Executive Chairman
  • Alberto Safra (Aubicon), Vice President Administrative Financial
  • Davi Akkerman (Harmonia Acústica), Vice President of Technical Activities
  • Luciano Nakad Marcolino (Owa Brasil), Vice President of Communications and Marketing
  • Fernando Neves Caffaro (Isover Brasil), Vice President of Investor Relations
  • Cláudio Benevides Soares (Knauf Brasil), Vice President of Associative Resources

There are also technical committees on environmental acoustics (coordinated by Marcos Holtz), acoustics in buildings (coordinated by Juan Frias Pierrard), and floating subfloors (coordinated by Rafael Schmitt). An ethics committee has been formed recently to prepare a compliance manual for ProAcústica members.

Canadian Acoustical Association (CAA)

The Canadian Acoustical Association (CAA) (caa-aca.ca) is a professional, interdisciplinary organization that:

  • fosters communication among people working in all areas of acoustics in Canada
  • promotes the growth and practical application of knowledge in acoustics
  • encourages education, research, protection of the environment, and employment in acoustics
  • is an umbrella organization through which general issues in education, employment, and research can be addressed at a national and multidisciplinary level

CAA Meetings

Acoustics Week in Canada 2016 (AWC16) will be chaired by Kathy Pichora-Fuller and Clair Wakefield, and will be held at the Sutton Place Hotel Vancouver in downtown Vancouver (BC), September 21–23, 2016.

CAA Awards

The winner of the 2016 ICA Early Career award is Frank Russo. Professor Russo works in the Department of Psychology at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, and is the current president of the Canadian Acoustical Association.

CAA Leadership

Frank Russo is currently CAA president, and Christian Giguere is past president.

CAA Other News

After several years of service, our colleague Professor Linda Polka has decided to leave her position as associate editor in speech sciences for Canadian acoustics. The entire editorial board is thankful for her dedicated work. The position is now open, and an editor with expertise in speech production would be very welcome! See the CAA website for details.

INCE-USA

INCE-USA (www.inceusa.org) is a nonprofit professional organization incorporated in Washington, DC. The primary purpose of the institute is to promote, through its members, noise control solutions to environmental, product, machinery, industrial, and other noise problems.

INCE-USA Meetings

In August 2015, INCE-USA hosted INTER-NOISE 2015, which was held in San Francisco, CA. This was a very successful congress, and was very well attended with a large number of delegates with a strong noise control materials and instrumentation exposition. Great thanks to Paul Donavan for his superb job as congress president. Paul had the invaluable help of Yang Hann Kim from the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering (KSNVE), co-president of INTER-NOISE 2015. This year, INCE-USA held its annual noise control engineering conference—NOISE-CON 2016—in Providence, RI. Mike Bahtiarian of Noise Control Engineering LLC was the conference general chair. NOISE-CON 2016 was another successful event for INCE-USA with three exciting plenaries and a good number of technical presentations.

INCE-USA Awards

Thanks to the INCE Foundation, led by Eric Wood, several awards were given during the INTER-NOISE 2015 conference. Dr. Marehalli Prasad received the INCE-USA Outstanding Educator award, and Bill Cavanaugh received the Laymon Miller Award for Excellence in Acoustical Consulting. Several student paper awards were also given at the conference, as well as during NOISE-CON 2016. To learn more about the INCE Foundation or to make a donation, seewww.inceusa.org/about/foundation.

INCE-USA Leadership

This year saw the change of the INCE-USA president, which happens every two years. Richard A. Kolano (Rick) of Saha and Kolano Engineers Inc. took over from Gordon Ebbitt at the end of the annual general meeting, which was held January 2016 in Chicago. Other leadership changes include Gabriella Cerrato taking over as vice president of technical activities.

INCE-USA Other News

After many years of having Courtney Burroughs provide support as proceedings editor, Gordon Ebbitt took over the proceedings editor duties this year for NOISE-CON 2016. Gordon will be handling the coordination for the NOISE-CON and INTER-NOISE proceedings digital library into the future.

Another change of note is Noise News International (NNI). After many years of publishing NNI in the form of a journal, first in print and then as an online PDF, the format will be changing to a more modern, user-friendly format. Look for the new format on the NNI website (http://noisenewsinternational.net).

Finally, INCE-USA has just adopted a new logo. The new logo maintains the traditional INCE letter formatting but introduces a digital waveform that represents INCE-USA is keeping up with