EEWebPULSE_2012_i0052.pdf

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PULSE

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Issue 52

June 26, 2012

Beth Cooper

NASA Glenn

Research Center

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Beth Cooper

NASA GLENN RESEARCH CENTER

Interview with Beth Cooper - NASA Internal Agency Hearing Conservation Consultant

The Development of NASA Auditory

Demonstrations Laboratory for Testing

of Hearing Protection Devices

BY JEFF SCHMITT , BETH COOPER AND DAVID NELSON

Featured Products

Why Can’t Johnny Design? Part 1

BY TOM LEE WITH QUANSER

Examining the teaching methods of the modern day engineering curriculum and the

challenges that engineering students face in the industry.

TDR: Reading the Tea Leaves

BY MIKE STEINBERGER WITH SISOFT

A review of the basic techniques for interpreting time domain reflectometry -- an essential

technique for analyzing measured S parameters.

Your Clocks, My Layout

BY BILLIE JOHNSON WITH ON SEMICONDUCTOR

A clock tree synthesis primer that is key to understanding how to tackle advanced

clocking requirements and strategies

RTZ - Return to Zero Comic

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INTERVIEW

Beth

Co per

NASA Glenn Research

Internal Agency Hearing

Conservation Consultant

How did you get into

engineering and when did

you start?

I became involved in engineering

through acoustics—the science of

sound. When I was a child, I guess

you could say that I had some

musical talent. I was able to pick out

melodies on the piano at a young

age, and I taught myself to play

several musical instruments. As I

got older, I would write harmonies

for tunes that I learned in school

or camp. This interest propelled

me into an involvement in music,

and that was how I spent most of

my time in high school. The focus

of many school projects was the

science of music — studying how

it was produced and why people

perceived music the way they did.

I was especially interested in the

relationships between sounds,

which is one aspect of the discipline

of music theory.

tones, and those kinds of things. The

technical field that encompasses

all of that is “acoustics.” So, to find

a college, I did what, today, would

be an Internet search—I went to

the library—and found that there

were four schools in the country that

offered undergraduate programs

in acoustics, one of them being the

University of Hartford. The program

there was a Bachelor of Science in

Engineering (B.S.E.) program in

Acoustics and Music. Students in

this program took most of the same

coursework as a music performance

major at the conservatory, Hartt

College of Music, as well as the

core coursework of an engineering

major. It sounded like the perfect

program for me, so that’s what I did.

For the first two years of my college

education I was a double major in

music and acoustics.

above what was required for my

B.S.M.E. degree, so I also earned

the equivalent of a B.S.E. in Music

and Acoustics.

From there I went on to Penn

State because it had the most

acclaimed program in the country

that awarded graduate degrees in

acoustics. The program was very

broad: it covered everything from

underwater acoustics to speech

science and audiology. I had

hoped to study musical acoustics,

but I needed to focus on an area

where there was ample funding

for assistantships. I modified my

academic approach to emphasize

speech science and speech

processing, which was probably

about as close as I could get to

musical acoustics. The connection

is really human perception, which

links speech and hearing sciences

to musical acoustics. So it’s not hard

to imagine the link between that and

being a hearing conservationist,

which is what I am now.

I eventually switched my major

to mechanical engineering, only

because the B.S.E. program at

that time was not accredited, and

I didn’t want to have any concerns

about the validity of my degree

while job hunting later. But I still

took all the same courses over and

When I started to apply to colleges I

very nearly became a music theory

major. It wasn’t until the very last

minute that I realized that there was

a name for what I really liked, which

was the physics of music—intervals,

Where did you irst go to work

after you graduated?

I worked in private industry for about

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INTERVIEW

four years, but it wasn’t what I really

wanted to do, since my ambition was

always to work for the government

in a research capacity. It took a

while to get an acoustics position at

NASA, but as soon as I heard there

was an opening at Glenn Research

Center in Cleveland, that’s where I

went. I’ve worked here for nearly my

entire professional career—about

25 years.

pretty significant community noise

issue that was threatening the

success of the research program,

and so my boss said, “We know that

human perception of sound is one

of your interests, so will you take a

look at what we can do to solve this

problem?” One thing led to another,

the noise from reverberating inside

the dome; this allows the space

to be used for noise emission

measurements on various aircraft

components.

After leading the acoustical design

and managing the construction

of this facility, I realized that I

didn’t want to go back to being a

researcher. I really enjoyed facility

design and noise control, and I

had, at that point, developed a bit

of a reputation as a “noise control

person,” leading me to take on

other smaller noise control-related

tasks. Eventually, I knew I wanted to

continue working on noise control

projects, which inspired me to find

my next home in the Health and

Safety organization.

Over the span of my

career, I have come

to be acknowledged

as NASA’s “noise

person,” and now

my responsibility is

to advise our senior

environmental

health officer and the

occupational health

personnel at our field

centers about noise

exposure issues,

particularly related

to noise control and

hearing conservation

program policies.

Can you tell us about what

you do at NASA?

Since I’ve been at NASA I’ve had

four major assignments, each

lasting from about five to seven

years. My first assignment was

on a team doing research on the

noise produced by jet nozzles

from aircraft exhaust engines. The

program included both analytical

and experimental research; the

work I was doing specifically

involved testing scale models of

exhaust nozzles in wind tunnels and

other laboratories.

During my interview for that

position, the person interviewing

me—who would eventually become

my boss—said, “We would love to

have you work on noise control,

but it’s really just one element of

a hearing conservation program

and needs to be approached that

way. Would you like to manage the

hearing conservation program?”

So I did that from about 1994 to

1999, establishing the hearing

conservation program here at NASA

Glenn Research Center. It ended up

being a very high-quality program,

and I think that is partly because

there was a significant emphasis

on noise control, which typically

gets neglected in the context of

a classical program. As part of

that assignment, I implemented

an aggressive campaign of noise

control solutions for our test facilities

and infrastructure buildings. I

also developed a number of novel

programs that NASA has since

As a typical researcher in a wind

tunnel, you have a fairly cyclic work

routine. You take data, analyze the

data, then write a paper and go to

a conference to present your work.

But because I had a slightly different

interest area than most of the other

people in my group, I was asked if

I would take a look at a community

noise problem that had developed

with one of our test facilities, where

researchers were doing aircraft

engine component testing in an

open parking lot. Obviously, it was

generating a lot of noise, and since

the testing was being done during

third shift to save money on power,

some residents of the nearby

communities had begun to regularly

call and complain. It had become a

and we ended up building a

geodesic-dome-shaped enclosure

that severely reduced the noise that

could be heard in the surrounding

community. The facility also has an

anechoic interior lining that keeps

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