The Future of Noise Control Education

The Monday Plenary session will feature a panel discussion on the future of noise control education. Noise and vibration control engineering skills continue to be vital to many industry sectors. Having trained experts in noise and vibration control is vital to new product development, building design and construction, and many other areas. In higher education, we see a steady shift away from noise and vibration education as newer, hotter areas emerge. This has resulted in noise and vibration programs closing at some schools, and a shift in noise and vibration education from formal graduate school training to on-the-job training, through programs like those offered by INCE-USA. This panel, moderated by industry experts and consisting of senior university and industry leaders, will discuss the state of the noise and vibration education landscape in America and discuss how industry / academic partnerships may evolve to support the industry in the future. 

The Tuesday and Wednesday plenary sessions will be held jointly with SAE. Information on these sessions can be found here.

Organizer and Panelist
Dr. Andrew Barnard is an acoustics researcher and INCE board-certified noise control engineer serving as the Vice President for Research and Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Michigan Technological University. With a Ph.D. in Acoustics from Penn State and a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Tech, his expertise spans underwater sound propagation, carbon nanotube thin-film thermophones, structural acoustics, and noise control applications. An INCE-USA Fellow and serial co-founder, he previously directed Penn State's Graduate Program in Acoustics and Michigan Tech's Great Lakes Research Center. 

Panelists
Dr. Davin Herrin is a professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. He received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Cincinnati and his Ph.D. from University of Kentucky. He is the author of over 200 journal and conference papers. Dr. Herrin has directed the Vibro-Acoustics Consortium, a group of companies interested in the development and use of noise prediction technology, since 2008. He has supervised numerous Ph.D. and M.S. students who now work as noise control engineers in industry. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Kentucky. Dr. Herrin received the Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE-USA) Outstanding Educator Award in 2019. He is an INCE-USA Fellow, SAE Fellow, ASHRAE Fellow, and ASME Fellow.





Dr. Steve Hambric has worked for 40 years in flow-induced vibration and sound and noise control for the US Navy, Penn State University, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and several US companies.  He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, books, and conference proceedings. He edited and co-wrote the book Engineering Vibroacoustic Analysis – Methods and Applications and has co-edited four books on Flow Induced Noise and Vibration Analysis (FLINOVIA series by Springer).  He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Institute for Noise Control Engineering (INCE).  He has developed and taught short courses on vibration and sound, flow-induced vibration, and signal processing to US government agencies and private companies for over 25 years. 

You can find examples of Dr. Hambric’s lectures on his website www.hambricacoustics.com, including a structural-acoustic tutorial given as the ASME Rayleigh lecture in 2021.  There are also on-demand webinars on measurement methods on the PCB Piezotronics website https://www.pcb.com/about/training as well as several short tutorial articles available for download. 

Moderators
Steve Sorenson currently works at Toyota Motor R&D North America in Ann Arbor, MI, on vehicle development in noise and vibration, with previous professional experience at other automotive OEMs and suppliers.  He is past president of INCE-USA, an INCE Fellow, a previous general chair of SAE Noise and Vibration Conference and technical co-chair of several NOISE-CON events.

Dr. Bisham Sharma is an Associate Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Michigan Technological University, where he leads the Mechanics, Acoustics, and Dynamics Laboratory (MADLab). His research develops architected materials for sound and vibration control, with a focus on additively manufactured acoustical materials — from 3D-printed sound absorbers and aircraft engine liners to elastic-wave metamaterials. His work has been supported by NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and industry partners. He received his Ph.D. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University and previously served on the faculty of Wichita State University.