Promoting acoustics sounds good to Purdue researchers

May 9, 2006

Promoting acoustics sounds good to Purdue researchers

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — More than 40 Purdue faculty members involved in the study of sound, its generation, propagation and effects are meeting for the first time as a large group next week to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations and support for acoustics research.

Acoustics: The Wave of the Future is May 18-19. The meeting is free, but registration is limited. Faculty members who make theater sound good, improve how people hear with artificial aids and produce speech, explore the molecular genetic development of inner ear structures and use sound to visualize hidden structures and record the rumblings of our environment are just some of the researchers who will participate.

Those who are interested should contact Jane Fenters, administrative assistant in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, at jfenters@purdue.edu or register online.

"Sound is taken for granted. People would be surprised at how unlimited and important the study of sound is in areas of biology, agriculture, communication, education, engineering, transportation, security and art," says Robert Novak, clinical professor and associate head of the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences Department. "Ideally conversations that take place at this event will lead to more research collaborations among Purdue faculty and with partners external to Purdue and larger-scale funded acoustics projects."

In addition to sessions that highlight Purdue faculty research, guest speakers include:

Brent Edwards, director of the Starkey Laboratories Hearing Research Center in Berkeley, California.

Steve Colburn, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University and professor of biomedical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lawrence A. Crum, director of the Center for Industrial and Medical Ultrasound Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington.

The workshop is supported by a grant from Purdue's Office of the Vice President for Research.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: Robert Novak, (765) 494-1534, rnovak@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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