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IEEE and the Acoustical Society of America. His 1975 IEEE Proceedings paper on linear prediction was named a “Citation Classic” by the Institute for Scientific Information. His other hon- ors include the IEEE 1978 Senior Award, the 1982 Technical Achievement Award, the 1988 Society Award of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, and the IEEE Third Millennium Medal. Dr. Makhoul has also served as a member of several pan- els of the National Research Council and has chaired panels in the areas of speech recognition and speech enhancement.
ASA Awards Presented at International Science and Engineering Fair (lSEF)
The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) presented two special awards to two high school students at the 59th Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held this year at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia. The fair has been held since 1950 as a means of encouraging pre-college students to conduct scientif- ic research. It has grown in size and pres-
place student, in addition the student’s school being awarded $200 and the stu- dent’s mentor being awarded $100. Each awardee also received a one-year ASA membership including a one-year subscription to JASA on CD ROM.
The ASA’s first prize award went to 16-year-old Lyric Elizabeth Gillett from Cornerstone High Homeschool, Houston, Texas for her physics project entitled “Intensity and Temperature Variance in Sonoluminescence," an excellently presented exhibit on the study of sonoluminescence, a hot topic in the ASA. The purpose of this study was to determine whether variation in water temperature would affect the light intensity produced from sonolu- minescent bubble. Her study showed that sonoluminescent intensity decreased as the water temperature increased. The experimental results could be helpful in determining the optimal temperature for sonolumines- cence. During the interview, the judges were impressed by her motivation, enthusiasm, and intention of continu- ing the research on this subject in the future. Our judges were pleased to know, at the time of writing this report, that Lyric has also won two Special Awards (second and third place) from other associations and Grand Awards (fourth place) for her project.
ASA second prize award went to 16- year-old Nicholas Mycroft Christensen from Wetumpka High School, Wetumpka, Alabama and his physics project entitled “Do You ‘ear Wha’ I ’ear? Redigitizing Voice Signals into Lower Frequencies to Revolutionize Hearing Assistance Technology” which present- ed an innovative concept and technique that could assist hearing-impaired peo- ple to improve their hearing capability. In the study, the .wav files of voices were re-digitized into lower frequencies by a computer program developed by Nicholas himself. The recorded and re- sampled voices were replayed to 120 people with normal and impaired hear- ing. The test results have showed signif- icantly improved recognition of low-fre- quency voice files for hearing-impaired people. What a creative and promising technique! One of our judges recom- mended that the student conduct a comprehensive literature search and
tige to become the crowning achieve- ment in high school science competi- tions. Student finalists who compete at the Intel ISEF have gone through a step process to qualify. Students first compete in their school or local science fairs. The winners then go on to participate in regional/or state fairs, until ultimately being chosen to participate in the Intel ISEF. In 2008, 1,557 student finalists from 51 countries competed for nearly $4 million in scholarships and prizes and the exhibiting projects covered 17 scien- tific disciplines.
About 1500 professionals from academia, business, government, and industry served as volunteer judges to interview finalists and determine the winners. The Grand Awards from $500 to $5000 are given to the best of catego- ry and for first, second, third and fourth places in each of 17 categories. Special Awards judges made awards on behalf of each of about 80 professional organizations, including ASA. ASA presented a first place special award of $1000, in addition the student’s school being awarded $500 and the student’s mentor being awarded $250. A $500.00 special award was given to the second
James M. Sabatier, Chair of ASA Judges, with winners of ASA awards at 2008 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, Lyric Elizabeth Gillett and Nicholas Mycroft Christensen.
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