Distance Education Course Schedule

Fall 2024 

Preregistration and registration information is available on the Distance Education Course Registration page.

Class Dates: August 26 – December 20

  • All classes video streamed and archived for review
  • All courses available for credit or audit

Tuition Fee: Credit or Audit

Tuition rate and IT fee for Fall 2024 is approximately $3,100 per three-credit course. The Exact amount will be determined by the Penn State Board of Trustees in July.


In order to guarantee fall course enrollment:

  • All new nondegree student applications and application fees or Resume Study nondegree student requests must be completed with The Graduate School no later than 5:00 p.m. (ET), Friday, August 16.

  • All resume study degree student requests must be completed with The Graduate School no later than 5:00 p.m. (ET), Monday, August 19.


Fall 2024 Distance Education Courses


ACS 501: Elements of Acoustics and Vibration

Instructor: Dr. Yun Jing

Class Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 9:05–10:20 a.m. (ET)

Credits: 3

Tuition: TBD

Prerequisite: Undergraduate physics, differential equations, and complex numbers.

Course Material: 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.

Text: Understanding Acoustics: An Experimentalist’s View of Sound and Vibration, 2nd Ed., Garrett, Steven L., 2020 (Springer) ISBN-10: 3030447863

Free PDF available after course registration.


ACS 502: Elements of Sound Waves in Fluids

Instructor: Dr. Dan Russell

Class Time: Monday and Wednesday, 10:35–11:50 p.m. (ET)

Credits: 3

Tuition: TBD

Prerequisite: Undergraduate physics and differential equations.

Course Material: This course lays the fundamental groundwork for the propagation of acoustic waves in fluids. Topics include basic equations of fluid dynamics, development of the linear wave equation, acoustic lumped elements, speed of sound, linear acoustic wave propagation of 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, propagation of sound in pipes and acoustic filters.

Text: Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics, Blackstock, David T., 2000 (Wiley) ISBN-10: 0471319791


ACS 503: Signal Analysis for Acoustics and Vibration

Instructor: TBD

Class Time: Monday and Wednesday, 1:05–2:20 p.m. (ET)

Credits: 3

Tuition: TBD

Prerequisite: Undergraduate physics, differential equations, and complex numbers as well as some familiarity with programming in MatLab or equivalent.

Note: This course replaces ACS 516, Acoustical Data Measurement and Analysis. Students may enroll in this course if they have not taken ACS 516. Students who have previously taken ACS 516 may not enroll in this course.

Course Material: 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.

Text: Instructor notes.

Software: MatLab or MatLab Student Version, available at webapps.psu.edu.


ACS 537: Noise Control Engineering

Instructor: Dr. Dan Russell

Class Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 10:35–11:50 a.m. (ET)

Credits: 3

Tuition: TBD

Prerequisite: Undergraduate physics, differential equations, and complex numbers.

Course Material: This course provides an introduction to the application of acoustics to noise control problems. 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.

Text: TBD


ACS 597: Computational Acoustics

Instructor: Dr. Vic Sparrow

Class Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 1:35–2:50 p.m. (ET)

Credits: 3

Tuition: TBD

Prerequisite: Co-Requisite Registration: ACS 501, Elements of Acoustics and Vibration, and ACS 502, Elements of Sound Waves in Fluids.

Course Material: The purpose of this course is to provide a good background in computational acoustics by providing instruction in using modern commercial packages for solving acoustics problems as well as a good understanding of the fundamental background knowledge so that the commercial packages can be used correctly and effectively. Students will be exposed to many important tools in acoustics including symbolic manipulation programs such as Mathematica; finite differences, finite elements, and boundary elements; scientific visualization; and sound propagation algorithms. Topics covered include using PCs and UNIX workstations; visualizing and postprocessing acoustic data; transient analysis of acoustics waves; modal and forced responses of arbitrary cavities using finite elements; acoustic radiation and scattering predicted using boundary elements and/or infinite elements; and first pass at parallel processing.

Texts: Instructor notes.

Software: MatLab or MatLab Student Version, available at webapps.psu.edu. Mathematica or Mathematica for Students, available at webapps.psu.edu.


ACS 597: Ocean/Underwater Acoustics

Instructor: Dr. Sheri Martinelli and Dr. Dan Brown

Class Time: Monday and Wednesday, 9:05–10:20 a.m. (ET)

Credits: 3

Tuition: TBD

Prerequisite: ACS 501, Elements of Acoustics and Vibration and ACS 502, Elements of Sound Waves in Fluids.

Course Material: This course covers a broad, but comprehensive, introduction to many important topics in underwater acoustics. The major goal is to give participants a practical understanding of fundamental concepts, along with an appreciation of current research and development activities. It serves as a foundation for more advanced study of current literature or for other specialized courses. Topics will include ocean physics, propagation, reflection, and scattering in the ocean environment. Additional material may be covered as time permits.

Texts: No text is required for this course. The lecture notes will be available electronically and will cover all of the course material.

Software: MatLab (to request the free student license for MATHWORKS go to softwarerequest.psu.edu). Students must have a working knowledge of MatLab prior to taking this course.


Spring 2025 Distance Education Course Schedule

Class Dates: January 13 - May 9

Tentative Course Offering

(Suggestions can be sent to acousticsde@psu.edu.)


ACS 514: Electroacoustic Transducers

Credits: 3

Prerequisite: Undergraduate physics, basic linear circuit theory, differential equations, and complex numbers. Must have working knowledge of required software.


ACS 515: Acoustics in Fluid Waves

Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ACS 502, Elements of Sound Waves in Fluids or ACS 597B, Introduction to Acoustics and Fluid Media, ACS 598E, Engineering Mathematics I or equivalent, or instructor consent


ACS 597: Advanced Signal Analysis for Acoustics and Vibration

Prerequisite: ACS 503 or ACS 597, Signal Analysis for Acoustics and Vibration

Note: This course replaces ACS 513, Digital Signal Processing. Students may enroll in this course if they have not taken ACS 513. Students who have previously taken ACS 513 may not enroll in this course.

 

 
 

About

Founded in 1965, Penn State's Graduate Program in Acoustics has become the leading resource for graduate education in acoustics in the United States. The interdisciplinary program leads to the degrees: Master of Engineering in Acoustics (M.Eng.), Master of Science in Acoustics (M.S.), and Doctor of Philosophy in Acoustics (Ph.D.)

Graduate Program in Acoustics

College of Engineering

The Pennsylvania State University

201 Applied Science Building

University Park, PA 16802