Page 48 - Summer 2010

Michael Dorman
Editor and Associate Editor feel meets the highest quality standards in research design, presentation, and impact for a given year. The award will be presented at the 2010 convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association on 19 November. Dr. Liss is a member of the Acoustical Society of America.
Vitalyi Gusev receives Humboldt Research Award
Vitalyi Gusev, Professor at the Université du Maine, Laboratoire de Physique de l´Etat Condense, has been elected the recipient of a Humboldt Research Award.
The Humboldt Award is conferred in recognition of lifetime achievements in research. In addition, the awardee is invited to carry out research projects of his own choice in cooperation with spe- cialist colleagues in Germany.
Professor Gusev is an international authority in the fields of photo-acoustic phenomena and nonlinear acoustics. He made important theoretical predic- tions and pioneered the theoretical framework for several photo-acoustic effects. In close collaboration with experimental physicists throughout the world his predictions have been veri- fied and new insight has been gained into acoustic phenomena on picosec- ond time scales. During his stay in Germany he will focus on the theoreti- cal description of acoustic phenomena in nanostructures and optically excited nanomechanical systems.
Julie Liss
Vitalyi Gusev
ASA Awards Presented at International Science and Engineering Fair ISEF
The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) presented awards to four high school students during the annual Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) held this year in San Jose, California. The Intel ISEF, the world’s largest international pre-college science competition, annually provides a forum for more than 1,600 high school students from nearly 60 countries, regions, and territories to showcase their independent research. The fair has been held since 1950 to simulate interest in scientific and engineering careers among high school students. Judges presented awards on behalf of 7 government and 69 professional organizations, including ASA. Our society presented a $1000 first place, $500 second place and two non- cash Honorable Mention certificates. Each awardee also receives a free one- year ASA membership and the mentors and schools of the first and second place winners also receive cash prizes.
It is noteworthy that preliminary analysis of submitted projects revealed the indisputable place of acoustics as a fundamental physical science. Acoustics in a direct and an indirect manner was present in projects in Behavioral and Social Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Electrical and Mechanics Engineering, Engineering Materials, Energy and Transportation, and Physics.
The first prize was awarded to 15- year old Marian Joan Bechtel from Lancaster Catholic High School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her work was categorized in the Earth and Planetary Sciences section. She presented a project titled “Developing a Process for Seismo- Acoustic Imaging Applied to Humanitarian Demining.” In a sand test-bed with plastic and metal land simulators for different positions of har- monic sound source and single geo- phone, she performed a massive set of measurements of a seismo-acoustic field. Then she processed recorded data using the Pearson Correlation technique for amplitudes and received distinctive images of land mine imitators, including a test-bed filled with wet sand, where traditional electromagnetic mine detec- tors fail. She demonstrated concentra- tion, vigor and the integrity of a mature person, which were necessary due to the huge amount of measurements.
The second prize was awarded to 18-year old David C. Liu from Lynbrook High School, San Jose, CA. His work was included in the Computer Sciences section. He pre- sented a project titled “Continual Adaptation of Acoustic Models for Domain Specific Speech Recognition.” Work was performed in close coopera- tion with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology team which developed a software package, “Web-Accessible Multi-Model Interface (WAMI),” a lightweight speech recognition service
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