I-INCE President’s Message

Greetings! I hope all of you are safe and healthy. The challenges of the pandemic continue to cycle up and down. I hope this has not caused you undue stress.

In this note, I will focus on news about the INTER-NOISE congress series.

We have now had a chance to analyze the feedback about INTER-NOISE 2021. I repeat again my sincere appreciation to Congress President Raj Singh, the Organizing Committee, and INCE-USA for the excellent job they did converting the format to a remote congress and all of the significant work and expense that went into making the congress synchronous (love for all attendees) and to explore how to include networking and social elements into a virtual congress. The post-congress surveys indicate that our noise control engineering community still prefers an in-person format but a substantial number of survey respondents appreciate the opportunity to attend virtually. The diversity of preference makes sense given the different career stages of members of our community and the trade-off we all must make between travel costs and the opportunity to network with our international colleagues. The I-INCE Board of Directors is continuing to consider new approaches of presenting INTER-NOISE to address the diverse preferences of our community.

Preparations for INTER-NOISE 2022 are well underway. If all goes according to plan, Congress will be held in Glasgow, Scotland from August 21 – 24 at the same venue that recently hosted the COP26 Climate Summit 2021. Given the success of COP26, we are optimistic that we will be able to have a nearly normal in-person congress. However, the 2022 Organizing Committee is making contingency plans in case we face travel challenges next August. The working assumption is that a significant part of our community will be able to attend in person. If travel is a challenge for another significant part of our global community, say due to inter-continental travel restrictions, the Organizing Committee is looking into some form of hybrid congress. Let’s hope this contingency isn’t necessary.

INTER-NOISE 2023 will be 2023 August 20 – 23 in Chiba, Japan. The Organizing Committee is progressing well with planning for the 2023 Congress. All preparations are on schedule. Wouldn’t it be great if they had no pandemic-related challenges!

And lastly, it is my pleasure to announce that INTER-NOISE 2024 will be held 2024 August 25 – 28 in Nantes, France. The I-INCE Board selected the Nantes venue from a group of excellent European proposals. The Organizing Committee has begun planning. The venue and preliminary program look very interesting. I hope you will all plan to attend.

I wish you all the best for a safe, healthy and prosperous 2022.

Bob Bernhard, I-INCE President