From the President of I-INCE (Dec 2018)
It seems a short time since the international noise control community met for INTER-NOISE 2018, but now is the time to plan for INTER-NOISE 2019 in Madrid, Spain, from June 16 to 19. INTER-NOISE 2019 is happening a little earlier than has been common in recent years due to the number of other meetings scheduled for 2019 in Europe. However, June is an ideal time to visit, as the weather is good, and it is before the main summer holiday period.
The Spanish Acoustical Society (SEA) is very experienced in organizing technical meetings, and Antonio Perez Lopez and his team are hard at work planning for what I am sure will be an outstanding congress. The four plenary speakers will cover topics including rolling noise, perception, loudspeaker arrays, and structural mobility. The special sessions provide a comprehensive range of topics applicable to noise control engineers.
As well as a high quality technical program, there will be some unique events at this INTER-NOISE. Spain is known for its culture and food, and in addition to the usual opening social on Sunday and the opening of the technical exhibition on Monday, there will be an all-inclusive cocktail and tapas on Tuesday as a replacement for the additional-cost “congress dinner” at past conferences. The Tuesday event will mark the 50th anniversary of SEA and include a special musical performance followed by a cocktail and tapas. So make sure you get your abstracts in and participate in this congress for all those involved with noise control engineering. Visit http://www.internoise2019.org for more information.
In the international “noise” community, in addition to the annual INTER-NOISE Congress, there are two important events that I wish to bring to your attention. The first is to encourage activities to be held on International Noise Awareness Day (INAD), on Wednesday, April 24, 2019. This day was initiated by the Center for Hearing and Communication (CHC) in 1996 “to encourage people to do something about bothersome noise where they work, live, and play.” Particularly in recent years, there have been some excellent initiatives from member societies that have gained much media attention and helped to raise the profile of concerns about noise on this day. So I urge the member societies to begin to begin to plan events for this day. Background information is available at http://chchearing.org/noise/day/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Noise_Awareness_Day.
The second event is the International Year of Sound planned for 2020. I-INCE is a founding supporter of this initiative from the International Commission for Acoustics (ICA). The initial intent to gain UNESCO support suffered some challenges, for at the same time, there was a proposal for a Charter of Sound linked with La Semaine du Son (week of sound). So it has become a logical extension to have a year when all the national societies and international groups involved with acoustics are encouraged to have a week of sound. In 2020 there will be activities taking place all through the year and all around the world, and it will become a real International Year of Sound. The ICA will provide a centralized web page to coordinate and report on activities and some special ICA initiatives such as education packages and videos.
The terms of new members of the Board of I-INCE commence at the beginning of the year, and it is appropriate to advise of some changes and welcome two new members. Stephen Hambric has been vice president of Pan-America, and he has accepted the nomination to take on the role of vice president of rules and governance following the end of Dave Holger’s term. After completing a term as director at large, Davi Akkerman from Brazil has accepted nomination as vice president of Pan-America. It is relevant to note that INTER-NOISE 2020 in Washington not only will be a celebration event but also will be jointly hosted by INCE-USA and the Brazilian organizations. We welcome to the board in 2019 two new faces: Catherine Lavandier from France has agreed to take on the role of vice president of Europe Africa. Stuart Bolton from USA was elected at the general assembly in 2018 to be the director at large for the Pan-America region. We look forward to their contributions to the ongoing activities of I-INCE.
I wish you all the very best for the festive season and the commencement of the new calendar year and look forward to your participation in INTER-NOISE 2019 in Madrid, June 16–19.
Marion Burgess
President, I-INCE
