Industry-academia collaboration to develop new building standards

Industry and academia must go hand-in-hand to progress science and knowledge. Often, academic solutions may not be the most optimal solution for the field where there may be a time/ equipment/ training restriction. For our work, we focused on improving the building acoustic standards—specifically the impact performance of floor-ceiling assemblies–through industry and academic collaboration. The research student at Michigan Technological University worked closely with Veneklasen Associates through their (non-profit) funding arm, as well as through summer internships to learn the existing limitations for impact performance field tests. The student used this knowledge to develop a test method with improved reproducibility while ensuring that the test is fast and minimal new training is required. The student now works with Veneklasen Associates after graduating to continue developing this test method.