President’s Column (Mar 2018)

From the President of I-INCE

Both East and West New Year’s celebrations are over, and we are now well into 2018. The major event happening for I-INCE in 2018 is the INTER-NOISE Congress to be held in Chicago from August 26 to 29. You should have received many email reminders to get your abstract submitted before the mid-March deadline. The congress committee will be busy working on the tentative program while waiting for paper submissions, which are due April 16 (if assessment requested) or May 7 for all others. One special session at the INTER-NOISE 18 will be the memorial session for Bill Lang—one of the original founders for I-INCE. Be sure to check the webpage for updates on the congress: http://www.internoise2018.org/.

The accompanying editorial by Luigi Maffei, our Vice President for Outreach and Development, discusses the importance of outreach to bring the message of noise control to as broad a community as possible. Some recent initiatives from our Vice President Technical Activities and supported by the board are aimed at increasing the outreach of I-INCE. Two I-INCE lectures have been made freely available on the web. One is the I-INCE Distinguished Lecture presented at INTER-NOISE 17 by Paul Donovan on “Tire Noise and Quiet Roads” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEvNnlCnApg&feature=youtu.be). The other is the lecture by Steve Hambric on “Flow Induced Noise and Vibration,” which summarizes many of the presentations at the I-INCE Symposium, FLINOVIA II, held in April 2017 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SncijqsJ4MA&feature=youtu.be). We appreciate the effort of all those involved, including the presenters, the host congress organizers, and those who did the post processing to produce a useful product. I-INCE intends to continue with this initiative and make freely available a video of one or more distinguished lectures each year.

One form of outreach that everyone who is passionate about noise control can do is to participate whenever the opportunity arises to promote good practices. The 2018 International Noise Awareness Day (INAD), set for April 25, is one such opportunity (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Noise_Awareness_Day; http://chchearing.org/noise/day/). It was created from actions by those concerned about the negative impact of noise on hearing and health. The awareness of this day is high in some communities, but others are completely unaware of this day. The international day is a wonderful opportunity for member societies of I-INCE to do something that will bring notice to the importance of considering the noise around us, as well as making the community aware that it is possible to reduce excess noise to make a quieter and safer environment. Some of the examples of activities that have been organized in recent years can be found on the web (e.g., https://euracoustics.org/INAD2017/). If your society organizes something original that achieves good coverage, then let the NNI Managing Editor know so it can be shared with the other societies. One classic example is from Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2017 where bright yellow ear muffs were put over the ears of a statue in the center of a noisy roundabout (http://www.prokerala.com/news/photos/brazil-sao-paulo-noise-awareness-day-233381.html). This received extensive national and international coverage.

So, I finish this editorial with the same message as Luigi—a challenge for us all!

Marion Burgess
President, I-INCE