Acoustical oceanography curriculum at The University of Texas at Austin

The acoustical oceanography (AO) curriculum at The University of Texas at Austin (UT) consists a number of courses and thesis research, which often includes field work. The core course is EE/ME 384N-5, Underwater Acoustics, which covers acoustic properties of the ocean, propagation, reflection, reverberation, scattering and target strength, ocean noise, array and signal processing and basic sonar design. The course is offered in alternate years and is cross-listed as both an electrical and mechanical engineering course. Prior to this, students usually take two semesters of physical acoustics: EE/ME 384N-1 and 2, Acoustics I and II, which covers plane waves in fluids, transient and steady-state reflection and transmission, lumped elements, refraction, ray acoustics, absorption and dispersion, spherical and cylindrical waves, radiation and scattering, multipole expansions, Green’s functions, waveguides, Fourier acoustics, and Kirchhoff theory of diffraction. Both are offered every year. Another course commonly taken by AO students is EE/ME 384N-3: Electromechanical Transducers, which covers basic modeling, analysis and design of acoustics and vibration transducers, including calibration. Recent student thesis topics have included marine acoustic ecology, the investigation of methane seeps, acoustic seagrass monitoring, and the assessment of glacial processes. Appropriate courses in UT’s natural and earth sciences departments supplement the acoustics courses.