55th International Congress & Exposition
on Noise Control Engineering

55th International Congress & Exposition
on Noise Control Engineering

PLENARY & KEYNOTE LECTURES

Prof. Con Doolan

School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia


KEYNOTE LECTURE
Flow Induced Noise Challenges from the Outback to the Ocean

BIOGRAPHY & SYNOPSIS

Prof. Kanako Ueno

School of Science and Technology, Meiji University, Japan


KEYNOTE LECTURE
Sound Environments for Learning and Development: Towards Sensory-Friendly Educational Spaces

BIOGRAPHY & SYNOPSIS

Em. Prof. Stephen Elliott

Institute for Sound & Vibration Research, University of Southampton, United Kingdom


PLENARY LECTURE
Past, Present and Future of Active Control

BIOGRAPHY & SYNOPSIS

Prof. Xiaozhen Sheng

School of Urban Railway Transportation, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, China


KEYNOTE LECTURE
High-Speed Railway Noise: Generation, Propagation and Mitigation

BIOGRAPHY & SYNOPSIS

Prof. Elke Deckers

Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, Belgium


KEYNOTE LECTURE
Vibro-acoustic metamaterials – towards industrial applicability

BIOGRAPHY & SYNOPSIS

Dr. Brandon Southall

Southall Environmental Associates, Inc., United States


PLENARY LECTURE
Marine Mammals and Noise: Measuring and Mitigating Human Impacts

BIOGRAPHY & SYNOPSIS

CONGRESS ORGANISER

All Occasions Group
12 Stirling St
Thebarton SA 5031
conference@aomevents.com

CONGRESS PARTNERS

Prof. Con Doolan

School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia

BIOGRAPHY

Professor Con Doolan has an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Queensland. After working in the UK, Department of Defence and University of Adelaide, he is now a Professor at the University of New South Wales. Professor Doolan leads the Flow Noise Group, a world leader in aeroacoustics. His projects align with the Defence, medical, mining, energy, aerospace and construction sectors.

LECTURE SYNOPSIS

Flow Induced Noise Challenges from the Outback to the Ocean

Noise generated by aerodynamic and hydrodynamic forces occur in rural/outback communities, urban centres and in underwater environments. Mostly, this type of noise is created by rotating blades, such as those found on wind turbines, newly proposed Urban Air Mobility vehicles, drones and underwater propulsors. Understanding and controlling this type of noise will simultaneously improve the amenity of those living alongside these devices as well as improving their operation. While these vehicles operate in diverse environments, the noise generating principles are similar and linked. This talk will describe the science of aero/hydrodynamic noise as it relates to these technologies, some of the scientific challenges associated with them, and our group’s novel measurement and control techniques.

Prof. Kanako Ueno

School of Science and Technology, Meiji University

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Kanako Ueno is a Professor at Meiji University, specializing in architectural acoustics. Her research focuses on the acoustic effects of concert halls from the performers’ perspective and the conservation of sound environments in childcare and educational facilities. She played a central role in developing the Standard and Design Guidelines for Sound Environment of School Buildings issued by the Architectural Institute of Japan. She currently serves as Chair of the Architectural Acoustics Research Committee of the Acoustical Society of Japan. Recently, her work has focused on creating inclusive sound environments for children with atypical sensory characteristics.

LECTURE SYNOPSIS

Sound Environments for Learning and Development: Towards Sensory-Friendly Educational Spaces 

The acoustic environment in school classrooms and nursery rooms plays a crucial role in communication, learning, and comfort. This keynote presents practical approaches to improving sound environments in schools and childcare settings based on architectural acoustics research. First, it reports on the effects of enhancing a room’s sound absorption performance on children’s communication and development. Second, it addresses the growing number of children requiring special educational support, including those with autism spectrum disorder and other atypical sensory characteristics, by introducing methods and outcomes of individualized acoustic adjustments. By integrating research findings grounded in practice, the talk explores how improved acoustics can support children’s development, enhance communication, and foster inclusive, sensory-friendly learning environments.

Em. Prof. Stephen Elliott

Institute for Sound & Vibration Research, University of Southampton, United Kingdom

BIOGRAPHY

Steve Elliott graduated with first class joint honours in physics and electronics from the University of London, in 1976, and received his PhD from the University of Surrey in 1979 for a dissertation on musical acoustics.

He was appointed Lecturer at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR), University of Southampton, in 1982, was made Senior Lecturer in 1988, Professor in 1994 and served as Director of the ISVR from 2005 to 2010 before retiring in 2022. His research interests have been mostly concerned with the connections between the physical world, signal processing and control, mainly in relation the active control of sound using adaptive filters and the feedback control of vibration. This work has resulted in the practical demonstration of active control in propeller aircraft, cars and helicopters. His more recent research interests have included modular systems for active sound and vibration control and modelling the active processes within the cochlear.

Professor Elliott has published over 300 papers in refereed journals and 600 conference papers, which have received over 30,000 citations. He is co-author of Active Control of Sound (with P A Nelson 1992), Active Control of Vibration (with C R Fuller and P A Nelson 1996) and author of Signal Processing for Active Control (2001). He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, was jointly awarded the Tyndall Medal from the Institute of Acoustics in 1992 and the Kenneth Harris James Prize from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 2000.

He was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2009.

LECTURE SYNOPSIS

Past, Present and Future of Active Control 

Although the idea of reducing sound by destructive interference with a controllable secondary source has been around since the 1930s, it was only an improved understanding of the physical principles of sound control in three-dimensional spaces and the development of digital control algorithms, in the 1980s, that made active control practical. This talk will briefly discuss these developments and the importance of a few key applications, specifically the active control of sound inside aircraft and cars. Although active sound design for engine noise in cars is now commonplace challenges persist in controlling road noise, which is particularly important in electric vehicles. The desire to achieve active control at higher frequencies has also led to the development of local rather than global control systems, which have benefited from recent developments in head tracking systems.

Prof. Xiaozhen Sheng

School of Urban Railway Transportation, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, China

BIOGRAPHY

Xiaozhen got MSc from Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU), China in 1987, and PhD from ISVR, University of Southampton, UK in 2001. He worked as Research Fellow at ISVR from 2001 to 2004, Senior NVH Engineer at Cummins Turbo Technologies Co. Ltd, UK from 2004 to 2011, Chief Engineer at Hunan Tianyan Machinery Company Ltd, China from 2012 to 2014, Chair Professor in Railway Noise at Key State Laboratory of Traction Power, SWJTU, China from 2015 to 2019. Since 2020, he has been Distinguished Professor in Railway Noise and Vibration at Shanghai University of Engineering Science. 

LECTURE SYNOPSIS

High-Speed Railway Noise: Generation, Propagation and Mitigation

High-speed trains are probably the greatest noise source in ground transportation. The source is featured with multipole generation mechanisms, large dimensions, rich frequency components, complex directivities, all complicated by fast moving. Higher speeds require lighter weights, but unfortunately, higher speeds normally mean stronger noise generation while lighter weights generally imply greater noise propagation, both heavily worsening noise mitigation. This talk will report some typical advances on high-speed railway noise research, covering measurement results showing typical characteristics of high-speed railway noise; analyses on source contribution to pass-by and interior noise; modelling and control of high-speed rolling noise and aerodynamic noise; prediction and control of the vibro-acoustic behaviour of car-body with poro-elastic media; prediction and control of vibration transmission through the suspension/bogie system; and finally, high-speed train sound quality.

Prof. Elke Deckers

Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven

BIOGRAPHY

Elke Deckers is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of KU Leuven Belgium. She received her MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering from KU Leuven in June 2008. During her PhD studies at the same university, she developed an alternative prediction method for mid-frequency vibro-acoustic analysis including poro-elastic materials. She received her PhD degree in 2012. During her postdoc, she extended her research field to the numerical and analytical modelling of complex lightweight material systems, including viscous materials, metamaterials and meta-porous systems, and the development of supporting fast numerical prediction techniques. She did a research stay at Cambridge University and a short research stay at LAUM. She was appointed Assistant Professor at KU Leuven Campus Diepenbeek in 2019, where she extended her domain of expertise to include also the manufacturing of lightweight material systems by polymer processing techniques like injection moulding and thermoforming. This enables her to focus on closing and exploiting the full (digital) loop ranging from design, over manufacturing to actual product performance.

Dr. Deckers is head of the KU Leuven division LMSD, chairwoman of the annual ISAAC course on experimental and numerical techniques in applied acoustics and member of the organising committee of ISMA – the biannual international conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering. She is co-chair holder of the Siemens Chair on Digital Twins for Smart and Sustainable Products, associate editor of npj Acoustics and board member of the Dutch Acoustical society.

LECTURE SYNOPSIS

Vibro-acoustic metamaterials – towards industrial applicability

Vibro-acoustic metamaterials have emerged as promising noise and vibration solutions which enable reconciling the often conflicting requirements of low mass and volume and high noise and vibration attenuation. Their superior performance arises from stop bands, frequency ranges of strong noise and vibration reduction, which result from the addition or inclusion of locally resonant structures on or into a host structure on a sub-wavelength scale. Although their potential has been widely evidenced in a variety of (academic) demonstrators, the manufacturing of MMs is far from mature while their performance is mostly limited to narrowband noise and vibration reduction. This talk discusses key aspects towards industrial applicability: tunability, mass-manufacturing and the combination of both.

Dr. Brandon Southall

Southall Environmental Associates, Inc.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Brandon Southall is President and Chief Scientist for Southall Environmental Associates (SEA), a research scientist with Marine Acoustics, Inc a Research Associate with the University of California, Santa Cruz, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Duke University Marine Laboratory. He obtained Masters and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California Santa Cruz, studying communication and hearing in marine mammals, and subsequently directed the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ocean Acoustics Program where he developed the first systematic marine mammal noise exposure criteria. He has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers and technical reports and given hundreds of presentations to scientific, regulatory, Congressional, and general audiences around the world. He leads several large, inter-disciplinary behavioral response studies of marine mammals through SEA and is engaged in a wide variety of field and laboratory research projects on hearing and the effects of noise on marine mammals.

LECTURE SYNOPSIS

Marine Mammals and Noise: Measuring and Mitigating Human Impacts

This talk will focus on the evolution of quantifying and managing the effects of human-generated noise on marine mammals. It will consider the central importance of sound in the life history of these diverse, complex, and protected top ocean predators. Developments and new directions in noise exposure criteria to guide responsible management and mitigation of noise impacts. New and emerging technologies to reduce noise impacts, including continuous noise alternatives to intense impulsive noise, will also be considered along with needed studies to quantify their efficacy and future directions.