Classroom Acoustics

Faculty Sponsor

Dan White

College

Engineering

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Summer 2018

Abstract

The purpose of my research was to analyze the acoustics of a room and determine whether or not it is suitable for a learning environment. This began as a continuation of a former project where tests were conducted in one classroom. The classroom has since been renovated and we wished to see how that had affected the acoustics. The tests would be done by popping balloons around the room, recording them, and then analyzing how the sound decayed. This will give a single number for each spot called the Speech Transmission Index (STI).


There existed no streamlined way of calculating STI, so we designed our own program to do all the necessary calculations. We started with the Python acoustics package which contained features to calculate other useful acoustical parameters, but lacked STI. We plan on eventually adding our code to the package so that others can have easy access to it.


This research will help create a way to be able to quickly check the acoustical parameters of a room and determine what work is needed to fix it. This is vital in a classroom setting where if you can’t even understand the professor, there is no way you will understand the lesson.

Biographical Information about Author(s)

Micah Nord is a senior at the University of Evansville with a dual major in Physics and Music. While the two can appear very distant, many of the fundamentals are the same. He has always loved finding ways to connect the two disciplines; acoustics provides many opportunities for combining knowledge from both areas.

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