Architectural Acoustics at RPI

RPI Alum Prof. Zühre Sü Gül delivered a plenary lecture at ICSV32

Prof. Zühre Sü Gül, a graduate of our program (06'), delivered a distinguished plenary lecture at the 32nd International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV32), held in Istanbul, July 5th and 10th 2026. During the ICSV32 Dr. Zühre Sü Gül's plenary lecture on The Sound of Heritage: Insights from Anatolian Sacred and Social Spaces has been well received.

Dr. Zühre Sü Gül is now an Associate Professor of Architecture at TED University, Ankara, Turkey. Her research lies at the intersection of architectural acoustics and computational modeling, focusing on sound energy decays in coupled volume systems, monumental historical structures, diffusion equation model applications, and the acoustics of cultural heritage buildings, including archaeoacoustics. During her research and study with our Program, she received the Robert B. Newman Medal for Merit in Architectural Acoustics. Her work has appeared in interdisciplinary journals such as Applied Acoustics, Journal of Architectural Heritage, Building and Environment, and Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, with several papers highlighted as technical area picks.

Congratulations, Zühre!

Ziqi CHEN Receives Prestigious Leo L. Beranek Student Medal (Year 2025

Our Ph.D. candidate, Ziqi CHEN, received the prestigious Leo Beranek Student Medal of Year 2025 for excellence in noise control research. This award recognizes Ziqi's work in Bayesian estimation of dissipation and sound speed in tube measurements, which have the potential to provide drastically increased accuracy in acoustic material characterization. His work has been published at the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 155, 2646-2658 (2024)]. Ziqi has presented his research progress at various national and international conferences, including ASA Ottawa Meeting 2024, InterNoise 2024, NOISE-CON 2024, ICA 2025, InterNoise 2025, NOISE-CON 2025. Congratulations, Ziqi!

Our Graduate Program has been well represented by the Graduate Students and the Faculty's presentations (altogether 12) at the 25th Internatioanl Congress on Acoustics joined with the 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, followed by the Satellite International Symposium on Music and Room-Acoustics held in New Orleans, in Late May 2025. Highlighted are grad. Students.

RPI Student Team Won the Top Honor of 2025 ASA Student Design

Graduate student team Kevin Messigner and Matthew Ripley of Graduate Program in Architectural Acoustics, has won the FIRST Honor of 2025 Student Design Competition, sponsored by The Technical Committee on Architectural Acoustics of the Acoustical Society of America.

The award was announced at the 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America joined with the 25th International Congress on Acoustics held in New Orleans, LA, May 19th -23rd, 2025. The RPI team has competed with many international student teams. This top honor of the competition reflects their excellence in architectural acoustics design on a 700-seat theater, located at Lopez' alma amter, Yale University. Additional details about the competition can be found on the website of the Robert Bradford Newman Fund (http://www.newmanfund.org).

We offer our congratulations to the RPI winners, Matt, and Kevin!

Graduate class 2024-25 explored excellent acoustics in Troy Music Hall (TMH) on Mar 21st. Thanks to TMH director Jonathan Elbaum, and staff, the Graduate Program in Architectural Acoustics at RPI has been benefitting from the TMH over years.

RPI Graduate Tim Perez promoted at THRESHOLD again

Tim Perez, graduate student (Class'11) of RPI-Graduate Program in Architectural Acoustics, is promoted to Partner of Threshold. Tim joined Threshold, a acoustical consulting firm in Chicago area, thirteen years ago. Interested at first in acoustics, he gravitated to AV where his expertise expanded in step with the firm, he has played an indispensable role in growing and strengthening Threshold's AV group. His insight, calm demeanor, and dry wit are an asset to the partnership and bode well for Threshold's future -- according to Threshold's announcement.

Congratulations, Tim!

Graduate Student Phebe S. Cunningham Received Prestigious Awards

Phebe S. Cunningham, graduate student (Class'23) of RPI-Graduate Program in Architectural Acoustics, has been awarded the 1st Prize of the Student Paper Presentations from the Technical Committee on Architectural Acoustics of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). She presented her research within the scope of her MS thesis project on meta-absorbers at the 186th ASA Meeting in Ottawa, May 2024. Her presentation is titled "Absorptive performance of layered metasurfaces using microslit panels" coauthored by Phebe S. Cunningham, , Ziqi Chen and Ning Xiang. Due to her outstanding research work on acoustic meta-absorbers, Phebe has also been awarded WSDG-RPI Student Award 2024.

RPI graduate class explores concert-hall acoustics in Ozawa Hall, Lenox, MA, getting deeper understanding of binaural and spatial evaluations of acoustic properties in the hall. Upper: Prof. Ning Xiang introduces challenges to the graduate students when inspecting multi-channel room impulse responses. Lower: Richard Rindel, experienced acoustic consultant, explains the graduate class that great cares must be given when setting up the spatial and binaural microphone systems.

Dave Conant, RPI School of Architecture's alumni (75's), Principal of McKAY CONANT HOOVER Inc., lectured during RPI 200 year's Anniversary at the Graduate Program in Architectural Acoustics on Sept. 27th 2024.

Dave's lecture addresses Room-Acoustical Design in Performing Arts (creative solutions). In addition, Dave went on to discuss creativity in Teaching and Learning with RPI architectural acoustics students.