Page 68 - Winter2018

Sound Perspectives
Jeffrey Vipperman
Address:
Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science University of Pittsburgh 636 Benedum Hall 3700 O’Hara Street Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261 USA
Email:
jsv@pitt.edu
Acoustical Society of America at the 2018 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF; bit.ly/1m2gRQG) is a program of the Society for Science and the Public (societyforscience.org) and is the world’s largest international precollege science competition. The Intel ISEF can be thought of as the “Super Bowl” of science fairs. Each year, approximately 7 million high-school students from around the world compete in local science competitions. This year, of those, only 1,800 finalists from 75 countries advanced to showcase their research at the 2018 Intel ISEF that took place in Pittsburgh, PA. Each affiliated regional science fair from around the world can send a prespecified number of participants to the Intel ISEF each year. The finalists competed for over $4 million in awards and scholarships.
In addition to the Intel ISEF Grand Awards, more than 60 Special Awards Or- ganizations (SAOs; bit.ly/2MKjDxt) also provide awards. SAOs are corporations, government agencies, universities, or nonprofits that sponsor educational scholar- ships, cash prizes, summer internships, scientific field trips, equipment grants, and more for finalists at the Intel ISEF. The 1,800 finalists were eligible for both Intel ISEF Grand Awards and SAO Awards. The American Society of America (ASA) began participating in the SAO program in 1978 to promote acoustics specifically and to recognize the accomplishments of students, mentors, and schools. The long- time participation of the ASA in the Intel ISEF recognizes the importance of pro- moting STEM education and generating interest in acoustics among all students. In addition to the $6,300 in cash prize award money, the ASA contributes $2,500 to the Intel ISEF Award Program to support local, national, and international media coverage. Keeta Jones, the ASA Education and Outreach Coordinator, works with the Intel ISEF staff to organize the involvement of the ASA with the fair. She also makes announcements to local ASA members to ask them volunteer their time and expertise as judges. The judges must have a minimum of six years of related professional experience beyond receiving their BA, BS, or masters degrees; have a PhD, MD, or the equivalent; or be a current doctoral student with more than four years of doctoral-level research experience or who is within one year of doctoral dissertation defense.
The fair took place from May 13 to 19, 2018. The ASA judging team was led by Jef- frey Vipperman and included Jeff Babich and Laurie Heller. Mr. Babich is president and principal consultant at Babich Acoustics, Pittsburgh, a company that focuses heavily on architectural acoustics, noise control, and test/measurement. Dr. Heller is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on hearing, psychoacoustics, environmental sounds, and signal detection. Dr. Vipper- man is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. His research focuses on active/ passive noise control, noise classifiers, structural acoustics, acoustic cloaking, and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Dr. Vipperman, as ASA head judge, presented the awards to the three winners at the Special Awards Ceremony on May 17, 2018.
66 | Acoustics Today | Winter 2018 | volume 14, issue 4 ©2018 Acoustical Society of America. All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1121/AT.2018.14.4.68