Sound of science

by Dan Linehan
The Free Press

Sound of science
Symposium whets research appetite of undergrads

ST PETER — As a physics major, Dorea Ruggles was interested in how Christ Chapel’s architecture affects the sounds generated within, if only because the French Horn player in her knew something was up.

The Gustavus Adolphus College senior didn’t stop at wonderment, designing a research project around the comprehensibility of speech at the school’s triangular, spire-topped church. She used the building’s sound system to blast noise through speakers and record how well it was picked up at about 80 locations.

Her findings? Overall, it’s tough to hear in the expansive chapel, and closer isn’t necessarily better.

Ruggles’ experiment was one of 20 on display Friday during Gustavus’ annual research symposium, organized by the science research society Sigma Xi (pronounced ‘zi’). It’s a time for undergraduates to show off months — and sometimes years — worth of hard work, and to vie for summer research funding.

Larry Potts, a professor and chair of the chemistry department, has been at the school for 35 years, but the symposium outdates him. The money that funds the projects originates from a 1968 endowment from alum Dwight Holcombe.

Potts said the symposium is valuable because it gives undergraduates a taste of what graduate school will be like, though in a nurturing atmosphere that avoids the fierce competitiveness of later research.

All the work is done in conjunction with faculty, who tend to guide the research toward answerable questions, Potts said.

It’s also work that’s often directly applicable to life after school.

That’s the case for business students Adam Hoffarber and Benjamin Galbrecht, whose work on team-building is virtually essential in modern business, they say.

Virtual because teams are often separated by thousands of miles and essential because globalization is the reality, not the future.

Even so, they agreed that it’s difficult to be graded as a team — especially after years of education focused on individual marks.

Ruggles says her newfound knowledge of acoustics software is “definitely a leg up” as she prepares for graduate school and then a research or consulting career.

She’s got a simple suggestion for improving acoustics that’s based on her admittedly limited study of Christ Chapel: “more speakers.”