Two acoustics graduate students held a hands-on speaker building workshop, open to students from any field of study. Credit: Provided by Olivia Heui Young Park/Penn State.
Acoustics grad students organize and host build-your-own speaker workshop
Apr 24, 2025
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Two graduate students in Penn State’s Graduate Program in Acoustics designed, organized and hosted a workshop that helped students build their own 3D-printed speakers.
Olivia Heui Young Park, a doctoral candidate in acoustics at Penn State, designed and led the two-day workshop for 15 students. Attendees included undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of science, technology engineering and math disciplines. Grace Wood, another doctoral candidate in acoustics, coordinated communications, organized workshop logistics and pitched the event to Penn State’s Center for Acoustics and Vibrations for additional funding.
“I have always wanted to host a series of build-your-own workshops for students to learn translatable skills, while also making sure they have something physical to take home afterwards,” Park said. “I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to share my skills and lead a workshop for students with various backgrounds and knowledge. I would love to see these workshops continue, as I believe hands-on learning is one of the most effective ways of learning and retaining knowledge.”
The workshop, which was split up over the course of two days, allowed 15 students to not only build their own usable speakers, but take them home afterwards. Credit: Provided by Olivia Heui Young Park/Penn State.
During the first workshop session, which was held last October, Park helped students use a free digital modeling software to design a dodecahedron speaker — a system that uses 12 individual speakers to create sound that is evenly distributed on all sides. Students were able to solder, assemble and take home their speakers using 3D-printed parts lifted from their computer designs at the second session, held in March.
Park will present a session on acoustics hands-on workshops at the 188th-annual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, which is meeting jointly with the International Congress on Acoustics on May 18-23 in New Orleans. At the conference, she will have the opportunity to discuss her research with an international panel of acoustics professionals, academics, students and scholars.
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