The 2019 International Congress on Acoustics (ICA) was held in Aachen, Germany, from 9-13, September 2019. It was followed by a satellite conference, the 2019 International Symposium on Room Acoustics (ISRA) in Amsterdam from 15-17 September 2019. Recent MS graduate Kieren Smith presented at both conferences, and received one of the ISRA Young Acousticians Awards for her poster “Design Features and Room Characteristics Contributing to Noise Levels in Restaurants”! Congratulations to Kieren!
The Institute of Noise Control Engineers has awarded 2019 Leo Beranek Student Medals for excellence in the study of noise control to two UNL AE students: Jay Bliefnick (graduate level) and Sam Underwood (undergraduate level). Congratulations to these students! Click here to read more about these awards and Dr. Beranek, for whom the medal is named.
Dr. Lily Wang participated in the 26th International Congress on Sound and Vibration in Montreal, 7-11 July 2019, presenting a paper on ‘Acoustic Conditions in Occupied Classrooms’ co-authored with MS graduate Kieren Smith. She had an opportunity to catch up with Dr. Siu-Kit Lau who formerly taught at UNL as well as NAG graduate Dr. Joonhee Lee!
Sam Underwood has been awarded a prestigious national 2019 Fellowship from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi! Established in 1932, the Fellowship Program annually provides funding to first-year graduate students who are pursuing post-baccalaureate degrees across all academic disciplines. Sam graduated with his Bachelor of Science degree in Architectural Engineering in May 2019, and is completing a Master of Architectural Engineering degree in 2019-20. He was selected by the UNO Phi Kappa Phi chapter to compete for the Society-wide awards. Read more about the honor through this link.
The Spring 2019 ASA meeting was held in Louisville, Kentucky (13-17 May 2019). It was a special meeting at which we celebrated the 90th Anniversary of the society (selfie frames, cakes, Kahoot games), and also the end of Dr. Lily Wang’s term as ASA President! Dr. Vic Sparrow’s song at the plenary thanking Lily was particularly memorable (many thanks to alum Josh Thede for capturing it on video!) A number of NAG members presented technical papers; both Kenton Hummel and Will Spallino received NCAC Student Travel Awards to support their presentations. Recent graduate Dr. Jon Weber received a Young Investigator Paper Award from the Technical Committee on Noise for his presentation “Quiet time impacts on the neonatal intensive care unit soundscape and patient outcomes”. NAG Board Game Night was a great success, with many alums and current students attending; Lily brought retro games this time (Jenga, Sorry, Monopoly, Scrabble and more). More photos from the conference may be found at this link!
This year, our Nebraska Acoustics Group (NAG) celebrated the end of the academic year by going to the Corky Canvas in Omaha! We dined on Upstream Brewery catering, and the Corky Canvas staff led the group in painting ‘Midnight Reflections’! We congratulated those graduating with degrees in the spring 2019 Commencement: Stephanie Ahrens, Jennifer Solheim and Sam Underwood all received Bachelor’s of Science in Architectural Engineering degrees, and Kieren Smith received her Master’s of Science in Architectural Engineering. Everyone’s paintings looked GREAT!! We’ve posted more photos from this event at this link.
At the University of Nebraska – Omaha’s 2019 Honors Convocation, NAG member Sam Underwood received the prestigious UNO Senior Vice Chancellor Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award. Sam’s nomination was forwarded by the UNL College of Engineering Dean’s Office, as he was selected for the College of Engineering Dean’s Award (also recognized at the same convocation). This is the first time in many years that a College of Engineering student was chosen for the top undergraduate student award at the UNO campus; congratulations Sam!
The University of Nebraska ASA Student Chapter hosted a sound walk around Aksarben in Omaha to celebrate International Noise Awareness Day 2019 on April 24, 2019! The group handed out kazoos as well, which were used in unique places along the way…
The University of Nebraska ASA Student Chapter hosted the Larry Royster Poster Competition on April 19, 2019. There were seven entries, judged by three judges: Jessica Hiatt (IP Design Group), David Manley (DLR GRoup) and Dr. Dominique Cheene (C&C Consultants). Congratulations to Kieren Smith who was selected as the top poster, and Brian Puckett and Stephanie Ahrens who received honorable mentions!
Congratulations to Kieren Smith who successfully defended her Master’s thesis research “Explorations of Acoustic Trends in Data Logged in K-12 Classrooms” on April 15, 2019, advised by Dr. Lily Wang! Later that day, Kieren presented a poster at the annual UNL Graduate Poster exhibit on a comparison of the acoustics time-logged data to that logged from other environmental factors (left photo below). Kieren is spending the summer at the Naval Research Laboratory and then pursuing her PhD at Arizona State University – we will miss having her at Nebraska!
