ASA Press Conferences Livestreamed from Nashville, Dec. 6 #ASA183

Media can register in-person and virtually to learn about topics including dust devils on Mars, chorusing seal pups, 3D-printed violins, and quiet, supersonic travel.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Nov. 29, 2022 – Press conferences at the 183rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America will be held Tuesday, Dec. 6, at the Grand Hyatt Nashville Hotel in the Crescent Room. The in-person presentations will also be livestreamed and recorded.

Topics will focus on a wide range of newsworthy sessions from the upcoming meeting, which runs Dec. 5-9. This includes music apps to stabilize emotions, machine learning methods to identify cholera outbreaks, and the soundscape of hydrothermal vents.

To register for in-person attendance, email media@aip.org. To watch the livestream virtually, please visit our registration page. Video recordings of the press conference sessions will be available upon request.


Press Conference Schedule – Tuesday, Dec. 6 (topics/times subject to change)

10:00 am ET / 9:00 am CT

  • Baby Seals Show Off Vocal Skills, Andrea Ravignani, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics; Session 5aAB2: Vocal learning, chorusing seal pups and the evolution of rhythm, Friday, Dec. 9, 8:50 am CT
  • Cultivating a Music Studio to Sound Like an Indoor Forest, Peter D’Antonio, RPG Acoustical Systems LLC; Session 2pAA10: The Evolution of Blackbird Studio C, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 4:20 pm CT
  • Listen to the Toilet — It Could Detect Disease, Maia Gatlin, Georgia Institute of Technology; Session 1pCA9: The Feces Thesis: Using Machine Learning to Detect Diarrhea, Monday, Dec. 5, 3:35 pm CT

12:00 pm ET / 11:00 am CT

  • Machine Learning Diagnoses Pneumonia by Listening to Coughs, Jin Yong Jeon, Hanyang University; Session 1pCA8: Pneumonia Diagnosis Algorithm based on Room Impulse Responses Using Cough Sounds, Monday, Dec. 5, 3:20 pm CT
  • Martian Dust Devil Analogues in the Mojave Desert, Louis Urtecho, NASA JPL/California Institute of Technology; Session 3aPAa6: Automated detection of dust-devil-induced pressure signatures, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 9:40 am CT
  • Can a Playlist be Your Therapist? Balancing Emotions Through Music, Man Hei Law, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Session 1pMU6: Emotion Equalization App: A First Study and Results, Monday, Dec. 5, 2:15 pm CT

2:30 pm ET / 1:30 pm CT

  • Helping Acoustic Concepts Resonate with Students, Andrew Piacsek, Central Washington University; Session 3aPAb9: Students are sitting in a room, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 11:10 am CT
  • Whispers from the Deep Sea: The Subtle Sounds of Hydrothermal Vents, Brendan Smith, Dalhousie University; Session 4aAO3: The soundscape of two deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites, Thursday, Dec. 8, 8:30 am CT
  • Why Those Sounds From Your Upstairs Neighbor Are So Annoying, Markus Mueller-Trapet, National Research Council Canada; Session 2aAAa7: Noise from above: a summary of studies regarding the perceived annoyance due to impact sounds, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 10:05 am CT
  • 3D-Printed Violins Bring Music into More Hands, Mary-Elizabeth Brown, AVIVA Young Artists Program; Session 2aSA4: Old Meets New: 3-D Printing and the Art of Violin-Making, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 9:35 am CT

4:30 pm ET / 3:30 pm CT

  • Supersonic Travel, Without the Sonic Boom, Gautam Shah, NASA Langley Research Center; Session 2aNS5: NASA Quesst Mission – Community Response Testing Plans, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 9:50 am CT
  • Improving Child Development by Monitoring Noisy Daycares, Kenton Hummel, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Session 4aAA6: Applying unsupervised machine learning clustering techniques to early childcare soundscapes, Thursday, Dec. 8, 10:25 am CT
  • Shhhh… Speaking More Quietly in Restaurants Means Everyone Can Be Heard, Braxton Boren, American University; Session 1aNS9: A Game Theory Model of the Lombard Effect in Public Spaces, Monday, Dec. 5, 11:40 am CT

———————– MORE MEETING INFORMATION ———————–
Main meeting website: https://acousticalsociety.org/asa-meetings/
Technical program: https://eppro02.ativ.me/web/planner.php?id=ASAFALL22&proof=true

ASA PRESS ROOM
In the coming weeks, ASA’s Press Room will be updated with newsworthy stories and the press conference schedule at https://acoustics.org/asa-press-room/.

LAY LANGUAGE PAPERS
ASA will also share dozens of lay language papers about topics covered at the conference. Lay language papers are 300 to 500 word summaries of presentations written by scientists for a general audience. They will be accompanied by photos, audio, and video. Learn more at https://acoustics.org/lay-language-papers/.

PRESS REGISTRATION
ASA will grant free registration to credentialed and professional freelance journalists. If you are a reporter and would like to attend the meeting or virtual press conferences, contact AIP Media Services at media@aip.org.  For urgent requests, AIP staff can also help with setting up interviews and obtaining images, sound clips, or background information.

ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world’s leading journal on acoustics), JASA Express Letters, Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. See https://acousticalsociety.org/.

Room Design Considerations for Optimal Podcasting

Madeline Didier – mdidier@jaffeholden.com

Jaffe Holden, 114-A Washington Street, Norwalk, CT, 06854, United States

Twitter: @JaffeHolden
Instagram: @jaffeholden

Popular version of 1aAA2-Podcast recording room design considerations and best practices, presented at the 183rd ASA Meeting.

Podcast popularity has been on the rise, with over two million active podcasts as of 2021. There are countless options when choosing a podcast to listen to, and unacceptable audio quality will cause a listener to quickly move on to another option. Poor acoustics in the space where a podcast was recorded are noticeable even by an untrained ear, and listeners may hear differences in room acoustics without even seeing a space. Podcasters use a variety of setups to record episodes, ranging from closets to professional recording spaces. One trend is recording spaces that feel comfortable and look aesthetically pleasing, more like living rooms rather than radio stations.

Figure 1: Podcast studio with a living room aesthetic. Image courtesy of The Qube.

A high-quality podcast recording is one that does not capture sounds other than the podcaster’s voice. Unwanted sounds include noise from mechanical systems, vocal reflections, or ambient noise such as exterior traffic or people in a neighboring room. Listen to the examples below.

More ideal recording conditions:
Media courtesy of Home Cooking Podcast, Episode: Kohlrabi – Turnip for What

Less ideal recording conditions:
Media courtesy of The Birding Life Podcast, Episode 15: Roberts Bird Guide Second Edition

The first example is a higher quality recording where the voices can be clearly heard. In the second example, the podcast guest is not recording in an acoustically suitable room. The voice reflects off the wall surfaces and detracts from the overall quality and listener experience.

Every room design project comes with its own challenges and considerations related to budget, adjacent spaces, and expected quality. Each room may have different design needs, but best practice recommendations for designing a podcasting room remain the same.

Background noise: Mechanical noise should be controlled so that you cannot hear HVAC systems in a recording. Computers and audio interfaces should ideally be located remotely so that noises, such as computer fans, are not picked up on the recording.
Room shape: Square room proportions should be avoided as this can cause room modes, or buildup of sound energy in spots of the room, creating an uneven acoustic environment.
Room finishes: Carpet is ideal for flooring, and an acoustically absorptive material should be attached to the wall(s) in the same plane as the podcaster’s voice. Wall materials should be 1-2” thick. Ceiling materials should be acoustically absorptive, and window glass should be angled upward to reduce resonance within the room.
Sound isolation: Strategies for improving sound separation may include sound rated doors or standard doors with full perimeter gaskets, sound isolation ceilings, and full height wall constructions with insulation and multiple layers of gypsum wallboard.

In the example below, the podcast studio (circled) is strategically located at the back of a dedicated corridor for radio and podcasting. It is physically isolated from the main corridor, creating more acoustical separation. Absorptive ceiling tile (not shown) and 2” thick wall panels help limit vocal reflections, and background noise is controlled.

Podcast recording room within a radio and podcasting suite. Image courtesy of BWBR and RAMSA.Figure 2: Podcast recording room within a radio and podcasting suite. Image courtesy of BWBR and RAMSA.

While the challenges for any podcast room may differ, the acoustical goals remain the same. With thoughtful consideration of background noise, room shape, finishes, and sound isolation, any room can support high-quality podcast recording.

Ultrasonics to monitor liquid metal melt pool dynamics for improving metal 3D printing

Christopher Kube – kube@psu.edu
Twitter: @_chriskube

Penn State University, 212 Earth and Engineering Sciences Bldg, University Park, PA, 16802, United States

Tao Sun, University of Virginia
Samuel Clark, Advanced Photon Source, Twitter: @advancedphoton

Find the authors on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/chriskube
www.linkedin.com/in/suntao

Popular version of 3pID2-Acoustics for in-process melt pool monitoring during metal additive manufacturing, presented at the 183rd ASA Meeting.

3D printed or additively manufactured (AM) metal parts are disrupting the status quo in a variety of industries including defense, transportation, energy, and space exploration. Engineers now design and produce customizable parts unimaginable only a decade ago. New geometrical or part shape freedom inherent to AM has already led to part performance often beyond traditionally manufactured counterparts. In the years to come, another revolutionary performance jump is expected by enabling the AM process to control the grain layout and structural features on the microscopic scale. Grains are the building blocks of metal parts that dictate many of the performance metrics associated with the descriptors of bigger, faster, and stronger.

The second performance revolution of AM metal parts requires uncovering new knowledge in the complicated physics present during the AM process. 3D printed metals are born from an energy source such as a laser or electron beam to selectively melt feedstock material at microscopic locations dictated by the computerized part drawing. Melted locations temporarily form liquid metal melt pools that solidify after the energy source moves to another location. Resulting grain structure and pore/defect formation strongly depends on how the melt pool cools and solidifies.

Over the past five years, high-energy X-rays only available at particle accelerators are used for direct real-time visualization of AM melt pool dynamics and solidification. Figure 1 shows an example X-ray frame, which captured a laser-generated melt pool moving in a single direction with a speed of 800 mm/ms.


MATLAB Handle Graphics – click here to watch the video.

This situation mimics the laser and melt pool movement found during 3D printing metal parts. Being able to directly observe melt pool behavior has led to new and improved understanding of the underlying physics. Unfortunately, experiments at such X-ray sources is difficult to ascertain because of extremely high demand across the sciences. Additionally, the measurement technique relegated to high-energy X-ray sources is not transferrable to metal 3D printers that exist in normal industrial settings. For these reasons, ultrasonics are being explored as a melt pool monitoring technology that can be deployed within real 3D printers.

Ultrasound is commonly used for imaging and detecting features inside of solid materials. For example, ultrasound is applied in medical settings during pregnancy or for diagnostics. Application of ultrasound for melt pool monitoring is made possible because of the tendency of ultrasound to scatter from the melt pool’s solid/liquid boundary. The development of the technique is being supported alongside X-ray imaging at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. X-ray imaging is providing the extremely important ground truth melt pool behavior allowing for easy interpretation of the ultrasonic response. In Figure 1, the ultrasonic response from the exact same melt pool given in the X-ray video is being shown for two different sensors. As the melt pool enters the field of view of the ultrasonic sensors (see online video), features in the ultrasound response confirms their sensitivity to the melt pool.

In this research, high-energy X-rays are being used to develop the ultrasonic technique and technology. In the coming year, the knowledge developed will be leveraged such that ultrasound can be applied on its own for melt pool monitoring in real metal 3D printers. Currently, no existing technology can capture the highly dynamic melt pool behavior through the depth of the part or substrate.

Practical benefits and value of melt pool monitoring within 3D printers are significant. Ultrasound can provide a quick check to determine the optimal laser power and speed combinations toward accelerated determination of process parameters. Currently, determination of the optimal process parameters requires destructive postmortem microscopy techniques that are extremely costly, time-consuming (sometimes more than a year), and wasteful. Ultrasound has the potential to reduce these factors by an order of magnitude. Furthermore, metal 3D printing processes are highly variable over many months, across different machines, and even when using feedstock powder from different suppliers. Ultrasonic melt pool monitoring can provide period checks to assure variability is minimized.

Assessment of road surfaces using sound analysis

Andrzej Czyzewski – andcz@multimed.org

Multimedia Systems, The Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, Pomorskie, 80-233, Poland

Jozef Kotus – Multimedia Systems, The Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics,
Grzegorz Szwoch – Multimedia Systems, The Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics],
Bozena Kostek – Audio Acoustics Lab., Gdansk Univ. of Technology, Gdansk, Poland

Popular version of 3pPAb1-Assessment of road surface state with acoustic vector sensor, presented at the 183rd ASA Meeting.

Have you ever listened to the sound of road vehicles passing by? Perhaps you’ve noticed that the sound differs depending on whether the road surface is dry or wet (for example, after the rain). This observation is the basis of the presented algorithm that assesses the road surface state using sound analysis.

Listen to the sound of a car moving on a dry road.
And this is the sound of a car on a wet road.

A wet road surface not only sounds different, but it also affects road safety for drivers and pedestrians. Knowing the state of the road (dry/wet), it is possible to notify the drivers about dangerous road conditions, for example, using signs displayed on the road.

There are various methods of assessing the road surface. For example, there are optical (laser) sensors, but they are expensive. Therefore, we have decided to develop an acoustic sensor that ‘listens” to the sound of vehicles moving along the road and determines whether the surface is dry or wet.

The task may seem simple, but we must remember that the sensor records the sound of road vehicles and other environmental sounds (people speaking, aircraft, animals, etc.). Therefore, instead of a single microphone, we use a special acoustic sensor built from six miniature digital microphones mounted on a small cube (10 mm side length). With this sensor, we can select sounds incoming from the road, ignoring sounds from other directions, and also detect the direction in which a vehicle moves.

Since the sound of road vehicles moving on a dry and wet surface differ, performing frequency analysis of the vehicle sounds is recommended.

The figures below present how the sound spectrum changes in time when a vehicle moves on a dry surface (left figure) and a wet surface (right figure). It is evident that in the case of a damp surface, the spectrum is expanded towards higher frequencies (the upper part of the plot) compared with the dry surface plot. Colors on the plot represent the direction of arrival of sound generated by vehicle passing by (the angle in degrees). You can observe how the vehicles moved in relation to the sensor.

Plots of the sound spectrum for cars moving on a dry road (left) and a wet road (right). Color denotes the sound source azimuth. In both cases, two vehicles moving in opposite directions were observed.Plots of the sound spectrum for cars moving on a dry road (left) and a wet road (right). Color denotes the sound source azimuth. In both cases, two vehicles moving in opposite directions were observed.

In our algorithm, we have developed a parameter that describes the amount of water on the road. The parameter value is low for a dry surface. However, as the road surface becomes increasingly wet during rainfall, the parameter value becomes more extensive.

The results obtained from our algorithm were verified by comparing them with data from a professional road surface sensor that measures the thickness of a water layer on the road using a laser beam (VAISALA Remote Road Surface State Sensor DSC111). The plot below shows the results from analyzing sounds recorded from 1200 road vehicles passing by the sensor, compared with data obtained from the reference sensor. The data were obtained from a continuous 6-hour observation period, starting from a dry surface, then observing rainfall until the road surface had dried.

A surface state measure calculated with the proposed algorithm and obtained from the reference device A surface state measure calculated with the proposed algorithm and obtained from the reference device

As one can see, the results obtained from our algorithm are consistent with data from the professional device. Therefore, the results are promising, and the cheap sensor is easy to install at multiple points within a road network. Hence, it makes the proposed solution an attractive method of road condition assessment for intelligent road management systems.

Connecting industry to a more diverse student population

Felicia Doggett – f.doggett@metro-acoustics.com

Instagram: @metropolitan_acoustics

Metropolitan Acoustics, 1628 JFK Blvd., Suite 1902, Philadelphia, PA, 19103, United States

Popular version of 4pED4-Internships in the acoustical disciplines: How can we attract a more diverse student population?, presented at the 183rd ASA Meeting.

Metropolitan Acoustics has employed 26 interns over a 27-year period. Of those 26, there were 6 students who pursued careers in the acoustics fields; of those 6, there was only one who was both a woman and minority, and that person was a foreign born student who came to the United States for school. Not one woman or minority from the United States who interned with us starting from 1995 entered into the acoustics fields after graduation. This is a very telling microcosm into the Acoustical Society of America as a whole.

Within the acoustics fields, we need to ask ourselves how we are connecting to underrepresented student groups. The engineering disciplines are not very diverse and the few woman and minority groups that enter into the field often leave for a variety of reasons, which most often lead back to a lack of inclusion. It doesn’t have to be a mountain – it can simply be a molehill that sends someone off the track of having sustained and productive careers in the science and engineering fields.

At Metropolitan Acoustics, a large majority of our interns have been 6-month co-ops as compared to 3-month summer interns (23-3). For the most part, the students were fairly productive and we found that interest, enthusiasm, engagement, and work ethic are all factors to their success. Six of the 26 went into careers in acoustics, and one of them works for us currently. The gender and racial breakdown are as follows:

  • Gender diversity: 20 male, 6 female
  • Racial diversity: 20 Caucasian, 6 minority; of the 6 minorities, 4 male and 2 femaleGender/Race diverse
  • Out of the 6 interns that went into careers in acoustics, 5 are Caucasian males and 1 is a minority female who is not native to the US

As an organization, what are we doing to attract a more diverse pipeline of candidates to the acoustics fields? And perhaps a bigger question is how we plan to keep them in the field, which is all about inclusiveness. Dedicated student portals on organizational websites populated with videos, student awards, lists of schools with acoustic programs, and other items is a start. This information can be transmitted to underrepresented student organizations like National Society of Black Engineers, Society of Women Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Society of STEM Women of Color, American Indian Science and Engineering, among others with the hope that this information may light a spark in some to enter the field.