The life of a New York City noise sensor network

Noise pollution is one of the topmost quality of life issues for urban residents in the United States. Continued exposure to high levels of noise has proven effects on health, including acute effects such as sleep disruption, and long-term effects such as hypertension, heart disease, and hearing loss. To investigate and ultimately aid in the mitigation of urban noise, a network of 55 sensor nodes has been deployed across New York City for over two years, collecting sound pressure level (SPL) and audio data. This network has cumulatively amassed over 75 years of calibrated, high-resolution SPL measurements and 35 years of audio data. In addition, high frequency telemetry data has been collected that provides an indication of a sensors' health. This telemetry data was analyzed over an 18 month period across 31 of the sensors. It has been used to develop a prototype model for pre-failure detection which has the ability to identify sensors in a prefail state 69.1% of the time. The entire network infrastructure is outlined, including the operation of the sensors, followed by an analysis of its data yield and the development of the fault detection approach and the future system integration plans for this.Comment: This article belongs to the Section Intelligent Sensors, 24 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, 45 reference

Deployment and Tech Transfer of a Street-Level Flooding Platform: Sensing and Data Sharing for Urban Accessibility and Resilience

69A3551747119Of the many impacts that are predicted to accompany climate change, flooding is expected to have an outsized influence on public health, infrastructure, and mobility in urban areas. However, very little data exist on the frequency and extent of urban surface flooding, and there is an unmet need for hyperlocal information on the presence and depth of street-level floodwater. Therefore, previous work funded in 2020-2021 was focused on the design and assessment of robust, low-cost sensors deployed in diverse urban environments to track street-level flood occurrence and depth. Given the success and lessons learned from our previous research program, the goal of the work funded in 2021-2022 was to expand sensor deployment and transfer data to our stakeholders through the following objectives: (1) expand the flood sensor network (2) develop a public-facing data dashboard to transfer flood data to a range of stakeholders, and (3) evaluate feasibility of new flood sensor modalities. During this time, we have designed, tested and built two new ultrasonic prototypes, designed and implemented plans for Design for Manufacturing, deployed 23 prototypes across all five boroughs in New York City, and collected a total of 744 days of data, logging multiple flood events and their profiles, including the highly impactful floods accompanying the storms Henri and Ida in August 2021. We have maintained collaborations with research partners at CUNY and city agency partners at DEP, DOT, NYC MOR and NYC MOCTO, furthering the goals of the FloodNet.NYC consortium founded during our prior funding cycle. We collectively applied for additional funding and secured a commitment for $7M in funding from the City of New York\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection to deploy an additional 500 sensors over the next 5 years, as well as$250K from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to prototype methods for public engagement around flood data

Pupils’ perceptions of noise in English secondary schools

A recent project has investigated acoustical conditions in secondary schools, in order to examine the effects of the acoustic environment on teaching and learning of 11- To 16-year-olds. The project has included objective acoustic surveys, subjective surveys of pupils and teachers and cognitive testing of pupils. For the subjective surveys an online questionnaire concerning the acoustic environment in schools was developed. Around 2600 pupils and 200 teachers from six secondary schools in England responded to the questionnaire; this paper reports the pupils' responses. Pupils were asked to identify sounds heard in their school, to rate spaces in their school in terms of ease of hearing the teacher, and to comment on the effects of noise. They were also asked to identify rooms in which it was hardest and easiest to hear and understand the teacher. Examining the differential responses between various groups of pupils showed that those with particular learning needs were more affected by noise than other pupils. Acoustic surveys were also undertaken in the six schools, and, where possible, the subjective data has been compared with data on noise and reverberation times in the schools

Acoustics and noise in English secondary schools

A recent project has investigated acoustical conditions in secondary schools in England, in order to examine the effects of the acoustic environment on teaching and learning of 11- To 16-year-olds. The project consisted of detailed acoustic and noise surveys of 185 teaching spaces in 13 schools; questionnaire surveys of around 2500 pupils and 200 teachers; and cognitive testing of students in different noise conditions. This paper presents the results of the acoustic and noise surveys of unoccupied teaching spaces, and compares them with the current standards on the acoustic design of schools in England, introduced in 2003. It is shown that the legislation has been effective in improving the acoustic environment in schools. Noise levels measured during 274 lessons in the same 13 schools are summarised, and the levels associated with different subjects and teaching activities examined. The lesson noise levels have been compared with unoccupied acoustic data to identify any influence of acoustic design on operational school noise levels. It was found that the better the acoustic design of the school, the lower were lesson noise levels

‘I’m sorry, do I know you?' : the REDS guide to networking for academics by academics

This guide is the outcome of two events ‘How to network’ and ‘Online Networks for Enterprise’, part of the REDS (Researcher Enterprise Development Salford) series of events designed to encourage and support the development of entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial skills amongst the research community at the University of Salford. The sessions consisted of postgraduates, early career researchers and experienced academics coming together to discuss and debate the how’s, what’s, where’s, when’s and why’s of networking in academia. What we all agreed on was that networking, when done right, can lead to some brilliant working relationships and opportunities for collaborations, not to forget employment