Page 51 - Fall 2005

ISEF Winners and Charles E. Wallace
team of Pen-Yuan Hsing and Wei-Kang Huang for their proj- ect titled Enhanced Cooling of Microelectronic Devices by Using the Thermoacoustic Effect. The students designed and built a thermoacoustic engine powered by a heated NiCr wire. In evaluating its performance, they measured the radiation, convection, conduction, and acoustic radiation. The heat generated by a microelectronic device is enough to trigger the thermoacoustic effect. The judges visited this project several times in order to better understand and appreciate the very high level of work. Mr. Hsing and Mr. Huang are stu- dents at the Taipei Municipal Lishan Senior High School in Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
An Honorable Mention Award was given to Courtney Anne Rafes for her project titled An Ear to the Track: An UltrasonicTrainWreckAvoidanceSystem. Inthisexperimental study, Ms. Rafes showed that the measurable ultrasonic waves can be sent from a train through the track to another train. This method can be used to avoid train collisions. Ms. Rafes is a student at the Northwest High School in Justin, Texas.
Also receiving an Honorable Mention Award was Jhe- Rhong Wu for his project Phylogeneic Analysis of Crickets by Acoustic Behavior and Mitochondrial Sequencing. The acoustical aspect of Mr. Wu’s studies included measuring a cricket’s main frequency and its time characteristics such as pulse number, chirp rate and length of chirp. The differences in acoustic behavior can be regarded as an identification index among species. Mr. Wu is a student at the Taipei Municipal Chien-Kuo Senior High School in Taipei, Taiwan.
All four students also received a one-year membership in the Acoustical Society of America.
The ASA judges for 2005 were Mr. Duane Reynolds, retired aerospace engineer, Dr. Michael Dorman, Professor of Speech and Hearing, Arizona State University, and Dr. C.E. Wallace, Professor Emeritus, Aerospace Engineering, Arizona State University. Dr. Wallace was the chair of the judging team and presented the ASA awards at the awards ceremony. The judging team was extremely impressed with the quality of the student projects and of the energy and drive that each student exhibited. It was indeed a pleasure to spend these few days with these students.
These fairs have been held annually for the past 55 years. The next Intel ISEF will be held in Indianapolis, IN, on 7–13 May 2006 and in Albuquerque, NM, in 2007. [Charles E. Wallace]
MIT Lemelson Prize awarded for acoustic invention
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Lemelson Foundation awarded the 2005 Lemelson-MIT prize to Elwood Norris for inventing technology that uses ultrasonic energy to focus sound exactly where it is target- ed. The $500,000 Lemelson-MIT prize is considered one of the most prestigious awards exclusively for inventors.
Norris is founder and chairman of San Diego-based American Technology Corp., which is developing Norris’ “Hypersonic Sound” technology. In 2002, the first com- mercial version of the device became available.
The prize was awarded on 22 April at a ceremony at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, OR.
William Marshall Leach, professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, for contributions to electro-acoustics and nearfield antenna measurements.
H. Vincent Poor receives IEEE medal
H. Vincent Poor, George Van Ness Lothrop Professor in Engineering, Princeton University, was awarded the IEEE James H. Mulligan Education Medal “for leadership in elec- trical engineering education through inspired teaching, a classic textbook, innovative curricular development and research.”
Dr. Poor is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, the AAAS, and other organizations. He has served as President of the IEEE Information Theory Society, and as a member of the IEEE Board of Directors. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.
The medal, which was established in 1956, is awarded annually.
ASA Fellow elected NAE Councillor
C. Dan Mote, Jr., president and Glenn Martin Institute Professor of Engineering, University of Maryland, was reelected to a three-year term as councillor in the National Academy of Engineering 2005 election.
ASA presents awards at 2005 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)
The 2005 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair was held at the Phoenix Civic Plaza Convention Center on 8–14 May, with 1444 high school students from more than 40 countries attending the competition. More than 1200 judges reviewed the projects and interviewed the students.
The ASA first place award of $1000 was presented to the
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