Pan-American News (Jun 2019)

Brazil—ProAcústica         

Brazilian Association for Acoustical Quality (ProAcústica)—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.

The association is quite active and, earlier this year (2019), was active in the International Noise Awareness Day, which was a great success in the city of São Paulo. It saw the launch of the Urban Noise Central Area Map, while a symbolic bicycle pedaling act was made on a particularly noisy street in downtown São Paulo. More information is available here: http://www.mapaderuidosp.org.br.

Canada—Canadian Acoustical Association (CAA)

The 26th International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV26), the annual congress of the International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration (IIAV) will held in Montreal, Canada, from July 7 to 11, 2019, with the support of the CAA and the involvement of J. Voix as general convener.

USA—INCE-USA

Steve Marshall is in his second year as president of INCE-USA and is also the president of Scantek Inc., a noise control engineering instrumentation company located in Maryland, USA. This will be Steve’s last year as president, and Michael Bahtiarian has been selected as the president-elect who will take over as president in 2020.

A change that has now been implemented is that the Board Certification is open to both members and nonmembers of INCE-USA. Paul Burge is the VP of Board Certification, and he chairs an independent Certification Board that evaluates applications and administers the exam that is required to be taken with a passing grade to become board certified.