Distance Education Course Schedule
Preregistration and registration information is available on the Distance Education Course Registration page.
Fall 2026 Class Dates:
August 24 – December 18
- All classes video streamed and archived for review
- All courses available for credit or audit
Tuition Fee
Fall 2026 Distance Education Courses
- ACS 501: Elements of Acoustics and Vibration
- ACS 502: Elements of Sound Waves in Fluids
- ACS 503: Signal Analysis for Acoustics and Vibration
- ACS 537: Noise Control Engineering I
- ACS 542/EMCH 542: Physical Principles in Biomedical Ultrasounds
- ACS 597.1: Sonar Engineering
MATLAB software is used in many of our courses.
ACS 501, Elements of Acoustics and Vibration (3 credits)
Instructor: Dr. Victor Sparrow
Class Time: Tuesday and Thursday | 1:35 – 2:50 p.m. | 433 ECoRE Building
Course Description: This course introduces the fundamentals of acoustics and vibration, focusing on structural vibration and sound waves in simple objects such as mass-spring systems, strings, rods, and plates. The fundamental concepts of vibration are presented along with applications to engineering and industrial problems. Topics covered: simple harmonic oscillator; mechanical resonance and damping; forced vibration and normal modes; transverse waves on strings; boundary conditions and standing waves; elasticity; longitudinal, torsional, and transverse vibration of bars; transverse vibrations of membranes; and flexural vibrations of thin plates. [Fall semester]
Prerequisite: Undergraduate physics, differential equations and complex numbers.
Material: Fundamentals of Acoustics: 4th Edition, Lawrence Kinsler, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000.; Wave Motion in Elastics Solids: Karl Graff, Dover Publication, Inc., 1975
Software: MATLAB recommended but not required. Student versions acceptable.
ACS 502, Elements of Sound Waves in Fluids (3 credits)
Instructor: Dr. Daniel Russell
Class Time: Monday and Wednesday | 10:35 – 11:50 a.m. | 433 ECoRE Building
Course Description: This course lays the fundamental groundwork for the propagation of acoustic waves in fluids. Topics include: basic equations of fluid dynamics, acoustic lumped elements, speed of sound, linear acoustic wave propagation, plane and spherical waves, radiation of sound from sources and arrays, sound intensity and power, reflection and transmission of sound at boundaries, absorption of sound, normal modes in rooms, probation of sound in pipes and acoustic filters. [Fall semester]
Prerequisite: Undergraduate physics and differential equations.
Materials: Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics, Blackstock, David T., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000
Software: TBD
ACS 503, Signal Analysis for Acoustics and Vibration (3 credits)
Instructor: Dr. Tyler Dare
Class Time: Monday and Wednesday | 1:15 – 2:30 p.m. | 433 ECoRE Building
Course Description: Time- and frequency-domain analyses for sampled, discrete-time acoustic and vibration measurements. Development, application, and consequences of filtering, spectral analysis, and correlation for single- and multi-channel data. [Fall semester]
Prerequisites: Undergraduate physics and differential equations.
Material: No required textbook.
Software: MATLAB
ELECTIVES
ACS 537, Noise Control Engineering I (3 credits)
Instructor: Dr. Daniel Russell
Class Time: Tuesday and Thursday | 10:35 – 11:50 a.m. | 433 ECoRE Building
Course Description: Topics covered: source-path-receiver model, human hearing and psychoacoustics, human response to noise and vibration, sound quality metrics and criteria for quantifying noise, acoustic standards related to noise and vibration control, instrumentation for measuring and analyzing noise and vibration, noise sources (distributed sources, impact sources, flow noise), absorption (materials, measurement, placement), control of sound in large and small rooms, partitions and barriers, mufflers, and vibration control techniques.
Materials: No required textbook.
Software: TBD
ACS 542, Physical Principles in Biomedical Ultrasonics
Instructor: Dr. Julianna Simon
Class Time: Tuesday and Thursday | 3:05 – 4:20 p.m. | 433 ECoRE Building
Course Description: This course is designed for students interested in understanding the complex interactions of diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound with cells, tissues, and organs. In this course, we will apply the fundamentals of linear and nonlinear acoustic wave propagation to biological specimens which scatter and attenuate ultrasound waves in interesting ways. While tissue influences acoustic propagation, ultrasound also creates bioeffects in the tissue ranging from mild heating up to the creation of thermal lesions or cavitation voids which can be leveraged to produce a therapeutic effect.
[Cross-listed as EMCH 542]
Material: Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging: 2nd Edition, Szabo, Academic Press, Inc., 2013.
[Free download available through the Penn State Library or E-textbook available through major booksellers]
Software: MATLAB and MATHWORKS
ACS 597.1, Sonar Engineering
Instructor: Dr. Daniel Brown and Dr. Chad Smith
Class Time: Monday and Wednesday | 9:05 – 10:20 a.m. | 433 ECoRE Building
Course Description: This course provides a comprehensive introduction to topics in SONAR development and applications. Its goal is to provide participants with an understanding of the fundamental concepts required to design, adapt, and use SONAR systems in the marine environment, and knowledge of how SONAR is commonly used today. Based on the SONAR equations and their use as an engineering tool, the course will guide students through in-depth discussion of components related to the environment, system hardware, and signal processing. Important topics include: active and passive SONAR concepts, interpretation and use of the SONAR equations, transduction and calibration, underwater propagation and reverberation, ambient noise, target scattering, array processing and beamforming, and fundamental SONAR signal processing methods.
Prerequisites: ACS 501 or ACS 502 (elements of acoustics), and ACS 503 (signal analysis).
Materials: Principle of Underwater Sound, Robert Urick; Urick's 3rd edition should be available directly from the publisher: peninsulapublishing.com/product/principles/
Software: TBD
