Welcome
Welcome to my blog. This is where I keep track of all the happenings in my personal and academic life as well as the random cool and funny things I find or dream up. Use the links on the sidebar to find the posts you would like to view, or check out the most recent posts below.
Hiking
Just thought I’d post a gallery of pictures from my recent day-hike along the AT to the summit of Mt. Greylock, the highest point in MA. Enjoy 
The Subtractionator
I thought one of our recent labs was pretty interesting, so I’m basically posting a slightly simplified, shorter version of the lab report here to explain the experiment and the results. This is also a good lab to post because the budget sci-fi looking device above is the test apparatus, and I was, for a completely unknown reason, tasked with refurbishing it from it’s previous state of disrepair to the functional state seen above. A bit of soldering, shrink tubing, and a few paper clips later, the Subtractionator was ready to go. Check out the full report after the break to read about the lab and find out how the device got its name.
Read More...Finally, an Update
Jazz @ Lincoln Center
Natural Rubber Structural Vibration Isolation Pads
On the way back from the Baltimore ASA conference, we stopped in New York City to Tour Jazz @ LIncoln Center and Artec’s office. The Jazz tour included the XM recording studios, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, the Rose Theater, and some supporting facilities. What was really cool about the tour was that we were not limited to the standard tour of the audience accessible areas; we actually got to go everywhere from the bottommost structural crawlspaces (pictured above) to the top of the Rose Theater’s stage house. Click here to check out the full gallery. I apologize for the dark pictures, my point and shoot camera really can’t handle low-light very well. While Artec’s offices are not especially spectacular, their consultants have incredible insight into the business and shared some very interesting thoughts about design philosophy and the realities of consulting. Big thanks to everyone at Artec, especially Todd Brooks, and Jazz @ Lincoln Center who made the the tours possible.
ASA Design Competition II
Many weeks of sleepless nights and hard work are now over as the ASA design competition is now finished. The design process was long and required us all to think quickly and creatively while learning totally new software and processes. The results are in and RPI didn’t do very well in the judging. We are all puzzled by the judge’s decisions, and the judging process itself left much to be desired in the way of clarity and reasonability. I’ll let the judges’ selections speak for themselves though. A collection of pictures of the winners is available here, and random shots of some of the other entries are available here. My team’s final poster is also available as a full-quality pdf.
The winners photo collection also includes a shot of the spreadsheet with the final judge’s scores. The judging system worked as follows:
- Each entry begins with 25 points from each of the six judges
- Each judge ranks his or her top 8
- The ranking replaces the point value from each judge, and all point values are totaled
- Lowest score wins
I’ll let you do your own arithmetic to see how a mediocre poster can easily beat a poster ranked very highly by most of the judges, but not ranked by just a few. For what it’s worth, my team’s entry was ranked 2nd by one judge.
Leo Beranek
Leo Beranek, one of the most important and prolific scientists and consultants in the short history of architectural acoustics, spent three days at RPI lecturing and offering advice on projects. He also donated his entire library of acoustics books to Folsom library in a ceremony where he also signed our copies of his memoir, Riding the Waves. The week concluded with a great dinner at the Plum Blossom restaurant where he told many great stories. Leo is a super nice guy, and I think we all hope he’s around much longer to continue sharing his knowledge and personality.
Thanks Leo!
You Will Not See This at RPI
Walking back to the hotel after the Meyer Sound seminar today I saw this as I walked through the University of Pittsburgh campus. Why can’t RPI be this cool? Also, this guy has great taste in coffee mugs; I have the same one.
Giant Balloons
I got to go the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade on Thursday. It was a good time and I managed to get some decent pictures of the balloons. Check out the gallery.
Syracuse Auto Show
I just thought I would post a few pictures from the Syracuse International Auto Showcase. Check out the gallery.
Industrial Acoustics Company (IAC)
Industrial Acoustics Corporation (IAC) is a well respected designer and manufacturer sound isolation doors, windows,wall partitions, musician practice rooms, etc. As part of a larger trip to NYC just about the entire WSDG office toured their Bronx offices, labs, and factory. Seeing the production process was interesting, but the best part was seeing the dual reverberation chamber used to test sound isolation performance and the wind tunnel used to refine and test HVAC duct silencers. Check out the gallery of pictures.
Sonic Black Hole
Image: Ute Kraus, physics education group (Kraus),
Universität Hildesheim
When isolation from sound is needed the options typically include mass, decoupling, or distance. However, a new experiment carried out by Israeli scientists may give us another option. All that needs to be done is create an artificial black hole capable of absorbing an infinite magnitude of acoustic energy. This is, in fact, what was done, for about 8 milliseconds. A read through the article will explain all the impracticalities, but hey, perhaps in a few hundred years we will be able to suspend our studios inside a bubble made of the event horizon of a black hole, sending all outside noise into another dimension!