Page 37 - Summer 2008

seek a patent application. It is worthy to mention that Nicholas has also won Grand Awards (fourth place).
The judging team included James M. Sabatier, Alexander Ekimov, and Zhiqu Lu from the National Center for Physical Acoustics, University of Mississippi. The special awards were presented by James Sabatier on the behalf of ASA (see photo). James M. Sabatier
Safe-in-Sound award for Excellence and Innovation in Hearing Loss Prevention
Hearing loss is a major health and quality-of-life prob- lem in the United States; hearing loss is the second most self- reported ailment after back problems. One way to tackle this problem is to reward companies that have excellent programs for preventing hearing loss, that recognize that mere compli- ance with regulations won’t prevent hearing loss, but will only document its progression, and that have redirected their programs to promote best practices and strive to eliminate hearing loss from work-related noise exposures.
Toward this end, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), in partnership with the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA), has established a new award to be given each year to the companies or organ- izations that exemplify Excellence in Hearing Loss Prevention. This award is called “Safe in Sound” and will be first presented at the NHCA annual conference during February 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. One award will be given in each of the following economic sectors: manufacturing, services, and construction. An additional award will be given for an innovation in hearing loss prevention, which could be anything from a new product, training program, software program or other new and effective idea. This award will rec- ognize an organization from any economic sector for their dedication to fostering and implementing new and unique advances in the prevention of hearing loss that other compa- nies or organizations may adopt.
The objectives of these awards are to nationally recognize organizations that document measurable achievements in hearing loss prevention programs, obtain information on their real-world successes, and widely disseminate information on how others can use these successful strategies or benchmark their own programs. A website, www.safeinsound.us, has been established to provide more information on the award and to provide specifics on how to submit nominations/applications. If you know of any organizations with outstanding hearing loss prevention programs or innovative approaches, please encour- age them to apply as nominations are now being accepted until September 1, 2008.
2008 Student Design Competition
The 2008 Student Design Competition was judged on July 3 at the Acoustics’08 Paris meeting. Seventeen entries competed for five awards, one First Honors and four Commendations. Participation in the competition repre- sents an enormous amount of effort, and each of the entries demonstrated a high quality of work and understanding of acoustic design. Each of the participants is congratulated on a job well done.
First Honors - $1,250 award: Kathleen Stetson, Alex Bockman, and Arthur van der Harten, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Commendations - $700 award, (in no particular order): Stephen Secules, Douglas Malora, Benjamin Markham, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Alicia Wagner, Jonathan Rathsam, University of Nebraska Pamela Harght, University of Kansas
Antoni Torras Rosell, Elizabet Tiana Roig, David Pelegrín García, Technical University of Denmark
Other submissions (in no particular order):
Onur Atak, Lennart Burenius, Tommy Hedin, Chalmers University of Technology
Liao Chiao-Ling, Julia Winroth, Mikaela Ranweg, Chalmers University of Technology
Yo Fujiso, Ata Can Corakci, Maria Pettersson, Chalmers University of Technology
Sam Gilbert, Cynthia Cheng, Gino Pellicano, Connor Sheehan, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Edmundo Guevara Flores, Gaetano Di Napoli, Roberto Cattaneo, Chalmers University of Technology
Anne Guthrie, Linda Gedemer, Craig Schaefer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
36 Acoustics Today, July 2008