High School Brilliance in ASA Publications

In this post, we invite readers to look back at a few ASA articles that were written and/or co-written by authors who were still in high school at the time of publication, proving that age is merely a number in the pursuit of scientific excellence.

High School Dougherty-sqr

The author and her siblings (left to right) Brooke, Ross, and Morgan Dougherty

First up is Brooke Dougherty who reached out to the editor of Acoustics Today (AT) to pitch her article idea. Her passion and initiative resulted in the AT Sound Perspective piece, “The Sound Journey of a Future Acoustician” (DOI: 10.1121/AT.2021.17.4.70) where Brooke writes about Perfect Pitch Fluency—an accessible resource to master perfect pitch, delve into sound concepts, and explore the hidden world of frequency in music and beyond.

High School Lee-Park

Experimental setup for testing the benefit of the metamaterial structure.

Next up, Joonyoung Lee and Mincheol Park, who received the ASA Second Award at the 2019 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), also presented at the 2019 International Congress on Ultrasonics. Co-authored with Jong-Rim Lee, Younho Cho, and Young H. Kim, the Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA) publication, “Optimize ultrasound condition for water treatment by coiled-up space metamaterial” (DOI: 10.1121/2.0001123) explores the efficiency boost of ultrasonic waves for cleansing.

High School Cayanan-Gozun-Tongol

Flowchart of Making the Sound Absorption Materials

The 2019 ISEF ASA Honorable Mention team made up of Neil David C. Cayanan, Shaira C. Gozun, and E’van Relle M. Tongol presented their project at the 178th Meeting ASA Meeting and then published their work in POMA. Their publication, “Hibla: Acoustic fiber” (DOI: 10.1121/2.0001264), showcases their innovative thinking in creating high-performance sound absorption panels from Abacá, Bamboo, and Water hyacinth.

High School Hillier

Spectrograms of the same utterance of “I know because I will” spoken by an adult female native English speaker.

After presenting their work at the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair in 2017, Adeline F. Hillier, Claire E. Hillier and their mentor, David A. Hillier, published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA). “A modified spectrogram with possible application as a visual hearing aid for the deaf” (DOI: 10.1121/1.5055224), describes how enhanced frequency resolution, optimized information clarity, and the elimination of distracting details is paving the way for a more intuitive and efficient interpretation of acoustic patterns.

The next time you come across a scientific publication, remember – it might just be the work of the next generation of acousticians, who penned their groundbreaking insights while still navigating the halls of high school!

New Across Acoustics Episode: Wait, What’s That? Weird Data in Underwater Acoustics

Oftentimes, when a scientist studying underwater acoustics begins an experiment, they have a specific goal in mind… but then there’s a bloop or a crackle they don’t expect, or the instruments are saying the ocean floor is at 500 meters instead of 5,000 meters like all the charts say, or a rogue pod of dolphins has caused measurements to go awry. In this episode, we talk to Erin Fischell (Acbotics Research) about all the weird data researchers can run into when they’re trying to study underwater sound.

Like the episode? Read the article in Acoustics Today!

Winter Issue of Acoustics Today now out!

The winter issue of Acoustics Today is now out! The cover features a photo of David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, taken by Paul H. Scarbrough. The related article discusses the 60-year process to make the hall “finally possess acoustics worthy of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra” (pg. 41).

Other topics in this issue:

  • Free reed instruments, a class of reed-based wind instruments where a reed swings freely through an open frame to generate a sound
  • Harnessing the renewable power contained in ocean waves and currents and converting it to electricity
  • How computers understand human speech
  • A history of stage acoustics, from the musicians’ perspective

Plus there’s an interview with Andy Piacsek of Central Washington University, an update on the Acoustical Society Foundation Fund, and an essay on how to be an effective leader in acoustics.

If you don’t want to wait for your print copy to arrive in the mail, you can check out the entire issue online!

Acoustics Today Winter 2023

The Cocktail Party Effect and Your Holiday Gatherings

The holiday season is well underway, and with the holidays often come holiday parties! You may have already attended a few gatherings yourself, or maybe you have some coming up. These parties all share some great characteristics: tasty food, festive music, and lots of friends and loved ones.

They all usually have another thing in common: noise.

Why is it that gatherings where we are meant to spend time with those nearest and dearest to us, reflecting on the past year and looking forward into the new one, are often so loud it’s impossible to discuss anything?

What you’re experiencing is a known problem: the cocktail party effect. Unfortunately, more isn’t necessarily merrier if you’re trying to have a conversation with someone in a crowded room. This article by Marshall Long from the Acoustics Today archive discusses why it’s so hard to understand speech in noisy settings (particularly those with lots of folks talking).

While researchers don’t have a solution for this common problem, they have looked into what’s going on in your brain when you’re trying to listen to someone talk in a noisy room. In a different article from Acoustics Today, Adrian KC Lee discusses neuroimaging tools that have allowed scientists to study how our brains understand speech in crowded environments. (Okay, so maybe this doesn’t solve your immediate problem of how you’re going to talk to your coworker or cousin at that party Saturday, but at least it’ll give you some interesting factoids to shout over the music?)

Hosting your own gathering and want to make it as hospitable to conversation as possible? If you’re going to be in a restaurant or other event space, this research from Murray Hodgson, Gavin Steininger, and Zohreh Razavi explains how to predict speech intelligibility in a eating establishment based on the number of people in the space. Plus, that article from Long’s that we mentioned earlier includes tips on how to reduce this annoying effect. Perhaps you can apply some of the ideas to absorb excess noise in your event space!

Unearthing the Mysteries of Sound in Archaeology: A Haunting Journey through Archaeoacoustics

With Halloween coming tomorrow, what better time than now to delve into the eerie world of archaeoacoustics? In the Acoustics Today article, “Archaeoacoustics: Re-Sounding Material Culture,” author Miriam A. Kolar delves into the sonic secrets of archaeological materials, unearthing long-forgotten forms of communication, and reanimating the silenced voices of the past.

Archaeoacoustics is an emerging field that transcends disciplines, allowing people to explore the significance of sound across time and cultures. It goes beyond mere acoustics and harnesses science, engineering, and the humanities to interpret archaeological findings. With a focus on experimentation, analytical models, and computational reconstructions, archaeoacousticians aim to unlock the sensory implications of ancient materials.

Imagine yourself atop a 3,000-year-old stone structure, towering above ancient plazas, listening to the haunting echoes of giant conch shell horns known as pututus. It’s not a ghostly apparition; it’s archaeoacoustics in action. In a spine-tingling experiment at Chavín de Huántar, Peru, researchers set out to measure sound transmission through these prehistoric sound devices. As they perceived the echoes “swirling around from all directions,” they recorded the sound and its return, revealing an auditory landscape we can scarcely imagine.

Archaeoacoustics is all about mapping the potential for sonic communication, assessing what could be heard and from where. By employing scientific methodologies and integrating information from site archaeology, researchers can test historical claims and offer empirical evidence for sound dynamics. Whether exploring pututus in the Andes or the enigmatic carnyx in ancient Scotland, archaeoacoustics reveals the extraordinary potential of sound to bridge the gap between past and present.

AT winter 2018 Cover Archaeoacoustics

As we prepare for Halloween’s eerie nights, remember that the mysteries of archaeoacoustics are just one example of how science can unveil the spectral sounds of the past. This field offers us a fascinating journey into the world of archaeology, combining the haunting echoes of history with the precision of acoustic science.

Intrigued by archaeoacoustics? Venture further into the realm of sound in archaeology in another Acoustics Today article “Acoustics in Music Archaeology: Re-Sounding the Marsoulas Conch and Its Cave.” Unearth the past through a different dimension—one that’s both bone-chilling and scientifically enchanting. Happy Halloween!