Noise Control Engineering Education in Mechanical Engineering Curriculum

In general an undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum has several core and elective courses in design, manufacturing, thermal and energy systems. Given that noise control is a specialized field, it has been difficult to bring noise control engineering as an independent course in the undergraduate curriculum. It is known that noise in mechanical systems results from sources such as vibration, impact, friction and fluid flow. Noise control engineering can be introduced as an elective course. However it is also important to introduce the engineering approaches for noise control through the traditional core courses such as mechanical design, dynamics of machinery, fluid mechanics and thermal engineering. Design projects in noise control engineering can also be offered in senior year. It is much easier to have noise control engineering courses in a graduate curriculum. This paper presents several approaches used in making noise control engineering as part of both undergraduate and graduate mechanical engineering curriculum at Stevens Institute of Technology. The importance of noise control engineering education in the curriculum of mechanical engineering will be discussed.