Pan-American News (Sep 2017)

Current I-INCE Pan American Member Societies

Society

  • Asociacion de Acusticos Argentina (observer only)
  • Acoustical Society of America
  • Acoustical Society of Chile
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineering, NCAD
  • Brazilian Acoustical Society (SOBRAC)
  • Brazilian Association for Acoustical Quality (ProAcústica)
  • Canadian Acoustical Association
  • INCE-USA

News and Events

News and events for each member society are listed below. The following member societies have been unresponsive to requests for news for the past several years: Acoustical Society of Chile, Asociacion de Acusticos Argentina, and SOBRAC.

Associacion de Acusticos Argentinos (observer)

The ICA 2016 conference was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, September 5–9, 2016.

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
The Acoustical Society of America held two meetings in 2016:

  • The spring 2016 meeting was held in Salt Lake City, UT, in May and drew over 1,000
  • The fall 2016 meeting was held in Honolulu, HI, in November. The meeting was held jointly with the Acoustical Society of Japan and drew over 2,200 attendees.

ASA Awards
Several awards were presented at the spring and fall meetings, including:

  • the Gold Medal to Whitlow W.L. Au
  • the Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal to Armen Sarvazyan
  • the Trent-Crede Medal to Earl G. Williams
  • the R. Bruce Lindsay Award to Megan S. Ballard
  • the Distinguished Service Citation to Susan B. Blaeser

The newly-established Leo and Gabriella Beranek Scholarship in Architectural Acoustics and Noise Control was awarded in 2016 to Andrew Hulva.

ASA Leadership
Changes have occurred to several ASA leadership positions. Marcia J. Isakson of the University of Texas at Austin is the new president, and Michael J. Buckingham is the new vice president. At the 2015 ASA election, Michael R. Stinson of the National Research Council of Canada was elected president-elect.

ASME Noise Control and Acoustics Division

The ASME Noise Control and Acoustics Division (NCAD) (https://community.asme.org/noise_control_acoustics_division/default.aspx) objectives are to establish a program within ASME that will encourage, focus, and further the development and application of noise control and acoustics principles to all engineering branches.

ASME NCAD Meetings
In November 2016, NCAD sponsored a technical track on Vibration, Acoustics, and Wave Propagation at the annual American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE), which was held in Phoenix, AZ. At IMECE2016, NCAD sponsored a total of 18 technical sessions, with approximately 90 technical talks on a variety of topics in noise control and acoustics. At the conference, NCAD organized the NCAD tutorial workshop as one of the track plenary sessions. Dr. Miao Yu from the University of Maryland was the workshop speaker and gave a talk on “Acoustic Sensing Technology.” Another plenary talk was given by Dr. Bahram Djafari-Rouhani of the University of Lille entitled “Presentation: Phonon Tunneling Through Vacuum Cavity in Finite Piezolectric Superlattice.”

For IMECE2017, NCAD is proud to a sponsor a technical track on Acoustics, Vibration, and Phononics. There are expected to be approximately 90 technical talks on a variety of topics in noise control and acoustics. Dr. Chris Fuller from Virginia Tech University will give the Rayleigh Lecture and Dr. Massimo Ruzzene from the Georgia Institute of Technology will give both the NCAD tutorial workshop and the Phononics Plenary talk. IMECE2017 will be held November 3–9 in Tampa, FL.

ASME NCAD Awards
The 2016 Per Bruel Gold Medal was awarded to Patricia Davies, Ph.D., professor of mechanical engineering, and director, Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN), for exceptional leadership and educational mentorship in the field of noise control and acoustics; and for outstanding contributions to noise control engineering in the areas of signal processing, nonlinear dynamic modeling, product sound quality, and human response to noise and vibration.

During IMECE2016, NCAD recognized and awarded three student papers through the NCAD student paper contest. The student papers were judged based on the quality of both the written paper and the oral presentation at the conference. Mr. Plinio Ferreira from Memorial University in St. Johns, Canada; Mr. Dante Tufano from Rensselaer Institue in Troy, NY; and Mr. Junjian Zhang from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS, won the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places respectively.

ASME NCAD Leadership
The current chair of the Group Leadership Team is Shung (Sue) Sung (GM retired) and the vice-chair is Charlie Zheng of Kansas University. Ab Kirwan (General Dynamics Electric Boat) is Treasurer, and Weidong Zhu is Secretary.

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.

For more information, please see our annual newsletter and website at https://community.asme.org/noise_control_acoustics_division/m/default.aspx and friend us on Facebook at NCAD.

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, as a factor of well-being and public health.

Currently 70 companies are members:

  • 38 manufacturers of acoustic products (54%)
  • 21 acoustic project and consulting firms (30%)
  • 7 installation and distribution companies (10%)
  • 4 laboratories (6%)

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), and Acoustics in Buildings (coordinated by Juan Frias Pierrard). An ethics committee has been formed recently to prepare a compliance manual for ProAcústica members.

Other News
The International Day of Noise Awareness was observed on April 26, 2017, by “The Manifest of the Silence” at the Bandeiras Monument, Ibirapuera São Paulo. Actions were in partnership with the Municipal Secretariat of Green and Environment of São Paulo (SVMA).

A documentary on “Acoustics for Schools” presents the results of solidarity action with acoustics intervention in a Municipal School of São Paulo. The initiative is the result of a joint action promoted by the Association and presents the results in the quality of the school environment after installation of acoustic solutions.

Canadian Acoustical Association

The Canadian Acoustical Associate (CAA) (http://caa-aca.ca/) is the 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, and
  • is an umbrella organization through which general issues in education, employment, and research can be addressed at a national and multidisciplinary level.

CAA Meetings
In September 2016, the Association held its annual conference and technical exhibition at the Sutton Place Hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia. The organizing committee was led by chair Kathy Pichora-Fuller. The event attracted around 170 delegates and achieved good sponsorship support and exhibitors’ participation, realizing a profit for the Association. The AGM of the Association members was also held during the conference, as was the Autumn meeting of the BoD. The 2017 annual conference will take place in October in Guelph, Ontario.

CAA Leadership
A significant change in the Association’s roster of appointed officers took place during the past year with the transition of Editor in Chief of the journal Canadian Acoustics from Jérémie Voix to Umberto Berardi. During his tenure, Jérémie oversaw a major transition of the journal from paper-only publishing to the digital domain with the creation of a 40-year archive accessible online and ongoing digital open access to all issues of the publication older than 12 months.

The current president of the CAA is Frank Russo (Ryerson University), the past president is Christian Giguere (Universite d’Ottawa), and the executive secretary is Robert Racca (JASCO Applied Sciences).

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
The NOISE-CON conference was held in Grand Rapids, MI, which was a joint meeting with the Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH) community of the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE). There was some trepidation in planning a joint meeting but in the end it turned out to be very successful, and both INCE-USA and SAE are looking forward to having another joint meeting in the not-too-distant future. Thanks to Jim Thompson and his team who really did a fantastic job.

INCE-USA Leadership
INCE-USA saw another year of change in 2017. The president for the second year running is Richard (Rick) A. Kolano of Kolano and Saha Engineers, Inc. As president-elect, Steve Marshall has been approved by the annual general meeting, which was held in January 2017 in Detroit, MI. Other leadership changes include Jim Thompson as VP of Board Affairs and Sanghoon (Sam) Suh taking over as VP of Publications.

INCE-USA Awards
Thanks to the INCE Foundation, led by Eric Wood, several awards are given to outstanding noise control engineers. This year, James Barnes received the Laymon Miller Award for Excellence in Acoustical Consulting. Several Beranek Student Medal awards were also given at the NOISE-CON conference. To learn more about the INCE Foundation or to make a donation, see www.inceusa.org/about/foundation.

INCE-USA Other News
After many years being the Editor of NCEJ, Courtney Burroughs decided this year to let someone else do this job. INCE-USA wishes to thank Courtney for the awesome job he did for many years as NCEJ Editor. Continuing with publications, Jim Thompson has taken over as Editor of NCEJ as of July 1 and Eoin King is now the Managing Editor of NNI. Eoin has some new interesting ideas for NNI, especially after last year’s transition from a PDF publication to an online blog. Eoin wants to introduce a greater element of social media, so watch for changes in how you interact with NNI!

Another notable event this year is the online offering of the Noise Control Engineering Course, which, if successfully completed, will serve in lieu of the professional exam for becoming board certified. This course has generated a lot of interest, and Courtney Burroughs will be the instructor. Further information on the courses and the material covered and cost can be obtained from the INCE-USA website (https://www.inceusa.org/careers-education/courses-and-training/). Look for more changes to the Board Certification in the coming years.