Page 28 - October 2010

OUTREACH EFFORTS OF THE COMMITTEE ON DIVERSITY IN ACOUSTICS
Juan I. Arvelo, Jr.
Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory National Security Technology Department Laurel, Maryland 20723-6099
The Acoustical Society of America
(ASA) recently formed the Ad-
Hoc Committee on Diversity in
Acoustics (CDA). This committee is
charged with exploring and proposing
activities designed to attract members of
under-represented groups to the profes-
sion of acoustics, to encourage diversity
members to join the Society and to
become active participants in sessions and committees, to assist them to strive for fellowships, and to encourage them to accept leadership positions in the Society.
The committee strives to institutionalize constructive adjustments to the Society and to participate in outreach efforts. Institutionalized changes include the approval of the following diversity statement:
The Acoustical Society of America is committed to making acoustics more accessible to everyone, and asserts that all indi- viduals, regardless of racial identity, ethnic background, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or national origin, must be provided equal opportunity in the field of acoustics. The Society upholds the belief that diversity enriches the field of acoustics, and is working to diversify its membership and the acoustics community in general by iden- tifying barriers to implementing this change, and is taking an active role in organizational and institutional efforts to bring about such change. The Society actively supports efforts by the acoustics community to better engage the knowledge and tal- ents of a diverse population, increase the viability of acoustics as a career option for all individuals, and promote the pursuit of acoustics careers by members of historically under-repre- sented groups.
As conveyed in the article “What can we learn about diversity from statistics on acoustics?” by Susan White and Rachel Ivie, in this issue of Acoustics Today, it is of utmost importance to collect demographic information from the ASA members to better track progress made by these changes and outreach efforts. These efforts were mainly in the form of active participations in conferences focused on welcoming and informing underrepresented undergraduate and K–12 students interested in the sciences.
National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP)/National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) 2008 Conference Exposing university-level minority students and profes-
sors to acoustics is key for increasing membership diversity in the Society. In an initial attempt to pursue this goal, two acoustics sessions were coordinated at the joint conference of the NSBP and the NSHP, which was held February 21-24, 2008, in Washington, DC.
“The Acoustical Society of America is committed to making acoustics more accessible to everyone.”
The conference was well attended by 250 minority students and 200 pro- fessionals. About 60 exhibit booths from industry, government, and professional organizations were present ready to recruit potential under-represented minorities.
This was the first time that acoustics sessions were held in this annual conference. Speakers in these sessions included Tyrone Porter (Boston University), Mawuli Dzirasa (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory), Joshua Atkins (Johns Hopkins University), Max Denis (University of Massachusetts Lowell) and Juan Arvelo. The topics ranged from medical ultrasound, transducers, noise control, signal
processing, and structural acoustics.
Professor Emeritus Uwe Hansen (Indiana State
University) conducted hands-on demonstrations allowing students the opportunity to experience acoustic levitation, standing waves, sound transmission, structural vibrations, Doppler frequency shift, and more. With their eyes (and ears) wide-open and big smiles on their faces, students gathered around the demonstration tables to confirm their observations and to take pictures and videos with their cell phones and cameras as evidence to show their friends and relatives.
NSBP/NSHP 2009 Conference
In collaboration with the Committee on Education in Acoustics, members of the Committee on Diversity in Acoustics coordinated various acoustics-related events at the 2009 joint NSBP/NSHP annual conference during 11-14 February 2009 in Nashville, TN. About 650 registrants, 350 university students, and 80 exhibitors attended this confer- ence.
Immediately after the opening reception, Uwe Hansen conducted a musical acoustics demonstration with members of the Nashville Jazz Orchestra. The demonstration included discussion of wave propagation and standing waves with a long spring and spectral analysis of each musical instrument to explain the physical mechanisms responsible for their unique spectral characteristics and harmonics. The discus- sion of each musical instrument was followed by the per- formance of a musical piece featuring that instrument.
A total of 157 technical presentations from a wide range of Physics subfields were delivered during the following three days of the conference. Professor Tyrone Porter chaired the acoustics technical session with professors Erica Ryherd (Georgia Tech), David T. Bradley (Vassar College), and Juan Arvelo as invited speakers. Juan’s talk was geared to exposing
Diversifying Acoustics Outreach Efforts 27