Acoustics website | Activities | EEI Affiliates

Acoustics is an interdisciplinary field of study that plays a role in a wide range of environmentally related areas of research. The Graduate Program in Acoustics is an Intercollege Graduate Degree Program that draws upon graduate faculty from a number of academic departments and the Applied Research Laboratory. This interdisciplinary faculty integrate both residence and distance education, and forefront research into a coherent academic program. The environmentally related research ranges from the molecular scale, by studying gas diffusion through soils, to the global scale, by studying aspects of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans.

Acoustic Environmental Research Areas:

Noise Control Engineering - analyzes and mitigates noise levels radiated by a range of machines and consumer products that lead to annoyance, reduction in worker productivity, loss of sleep, hearing loss, and other problems having a significant physical and economic impact.

Thermoacoustics - a cooling and heat engine technology that uses environmentally benign gases and, hence, will not potentially further deplete the ozone layer or contribute to global warming.

Transportation Noise - highway noise, and commercial and military airplane and helicopter noise has a significant impact on surrounding communities. Penn State was designated the FAA and NASA Center of Excellence for Aircraft Noise and Aviation Emissions Mitigation in 2003.

Ocean Acoustics - monitoring of the ocean's environment and investigations of the potential for impact of transportation and shipping noise on the behavior of marine mammals.

Atmospheric Acoustics - meteorological conditions are frequently the critical factor determining the character of noise propagation from a source and the impacts of noise on individuals and/or communities.

Sonic Gas Analysis - automated precision sound speed measurements are used to measure the in mean molecular weight to monitor diffusion of gases through soils and the metabolism of anaerobic bacteria that evolve hydrogen.