Impact of industrial partnerships in the acoustics program at Kettering University

Kettering University has an experiential learning model in which students typically alternate between academic and cooperative work terms every quarter during their entire undergraduate degree program. In this approach, industrial partners play a particularly critical role. In this talk, we will discuss how partnerships with industry have impacted our classroom experiences and inspired curricular elements that incorporate theoretical, computational, and experimental approaches to solve problems in acoustics. We will highlight some of the work related to acoustics that students have done in their co-op projects and how students have served as a bridge between the academic and corporate environments. The course “Acoustics in the Human Environment” has recently benefited from a grant from the Head Acoustics Foundation. The course was revamped in Spring 2022 to include more detailed analysis and a jury study that make use of this donation. The course “Acoustic Testing and Modeling” uses Siemens Simcenter Testlab to acquire experimental data and Comsol for computer simulations. Recently, this course has added a module on Laser Doppler Vibrometry that makes use of equipment from Polytec. The efforts in these courses have enabled students to be better prepared for acoustic testing projects for a thesis or co-operative employment terms.