Student Chapter of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

ASA is the premiere society for acoustics in the nation and seeks to serve the widespread interests of the acoustics community in all branches of acoustics. The Acoustical Society was co-founded in 1929 by BYU Alumni Harvey Fletcher and Vern Knudsen. Harvey Fletcher, Knudsen’s mentor at BYU and founder of the BYU College of Engineering, served as the first president of ASA, while Knudsen served as the third president. Other well known acousticians affiliated with BYU include Carl F. Eyring, after whom the Eyring Science Center is named, Wayne B. Hales, former dean of the BYU general college and Ingo Titze, executive director of the National Center for Voice and Speech, not to mention our current faculty, who are also experts in their respective fields. Today, BYU continues to have a strong interdisciplinary program for acoustics, and the creation of the ASA student chapter is a continuation of that tradition.

All students, faculty and interested members of the community are invited to join the student chapter. There are no attendance requirements or dues. Additionally, members of the student chapter are not required to be official members of ASA or even be students. Membership can be obtained by requesting membership and attending at least one meeting every six months.

Student officers are elected annually by members of the student chapter. Current officers are Chair: James Esplin, Vice Chair: Michael Muhlestein, Secretary: Jesse Daily, Treasurer: Danny Marquez, Activities Coordinator: Ian Coltrin and Hillary Jones, Outreach Coordinators: Ben Christensen and Blaine Harker. They serve under a faculty advisor, who is currently Dr. Kent Gee.

Weekly meetings are held Fall and Winter semesters on Thursdays at 11:00 in C261 of the Eyring Science Center. These meetings are composed of student presentations, faculty lectures, distinguished guest lecturers, equipment demonstrations/tutorials and technical tours. Topics will include but are not limited to architectural and audio acoustics, vibrations, noise and noise control, psychoacoustics, underwater acoustics, signal processing , musical acoustics, biomedical acoustics and physical acoustics. Additional socials, tours and other activities will also be planned.

For more information on the BYU student chapter of ASA please contact Michael Muhlestein at mimuhle@gmail.com . For more information on the ASA please visit the official ASA webpage at http://acousticalsociety.org or official ASA student webpage at www.acosoc.org/student .

BYU Acoustics Research Group Meetings - Fall Semester 2012

August

• 30 - Research Groups Presentations and new research opportunities

September

• 6 -
• 13 -
• 20 -
• 27 -

October

• 4 -
• 11 -
• 18 - Writing a Journal Article
• 25 - ASA meeting in Kansas City, MO - Fall 2012

November

• 1 - Improving Breast Cancer Surgery with High-Frequency Ultrasound (Tim Doyle)
  • Medical ultrasound is currently used to image tissues, organs, and other features in the body that show deviations in density or stiffness. Since density and stiffness changes can arise from many causes, both benign and malignant, ultrasound is currently limited to the detection of anomalous tissue regions followed by an invasive needle or surgical biopsy to determine tissue pathology. At UVU we are working to bypass the biopsy stage by developing a high-frequency ultrasonic method that can directly determine tissue pathology by the effects that tissue microstructure has on the scattering of ultrasonic waves. This method has the potential to aid breast cancer surgeons in the operating room by ensuring that all of the cancer has been removed during a lumpectomy while preserving as much of the normal tissue as possible. To further develop and explore the physical basis behind our method, we have and are continuing to conduct a range of experimental and numerical studies at UVU and the Huntsman Cancer Institute. The results to date strongly support data from lumpectomy specimens, and show that high-frequency ultrasound is most sensitive to breast malignancies and the degree of tissue heterogeneity.
• 8 -
• 15 -
• 22 - Happy Thanskgiving
• 29 -

December

• 6 - http://www.physics.byu.edu/Research/acoustics/Boomwhackers.avi

National/International Conference/Meetings Information

2011

• ASA Meeting in Seattle, WA - May 23-27, 2011
• ASA Meeting in San Diego, CA - Oct. 31-Nov. 4, 2011

2012

• ASA meeting in Hong Kong, China - May 13-18, 2012
• ASA meeting in Kansas City, MO - Fall 2012

2013

• ASA Meeting in Montreal, Canada - Jun. 2-7, 2013
• ASA Meeting in San Francisco, CA?? (Fall 2013)

2014

• ASA Meeting in Providence, RI (Spring 2014)
• ASA Meeting in Indianapolis, IN (Fall 2014)

• Please sign out all your research equipment
• Please keep your research areas clean and orderly

• AES Educational Grant (grad school) applications are due by May 15 each year (Dr. L, Dr. A [2004], and Dan Tengelsen [2009] are past recipients)
• ASA Hunt Fellowship (postdoc) applications are due in Sept. each year
• ASA Minority Fellowship (grad school) applications are due by Mar. 1 each year
• ASA Newman Fund sponsors various awards for architectural acoustics
• ASA Young Award (undergrads) applications are due mid October each year (Blaine Harker [2010] is a past recipient)
• NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (PhD studies) applications are due early Nov. each year
• Other NSF Funding Opportunities
• BYU ORCA Grant (undergrad) applications are due by Oct. 30 each year (Blane Harker [2011] is a past recipient)