SBIR Phase I: Cloud-based Acoustic Simulation Service

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop new ways of using cloud computing to accurately model acoustics in buildings. Reliably modeling the behavior of sound waves is a difficult problem. Researchers have recently developed an algorithm called Adaptive Rectangular Decomposition (ARD), which can accurately model acoustics. But given the amount of memory and processing power found in desktop and laptop computers today, ARD can only work on small buildings or for low frequencies. The only way to make ARD work in complex, real-world situations is to run it on multiple computers at the same time, by moving it to the cloud. ARD is based on mathematical techniques that make it difficult to scale in the cloud. This is because individual computers (or compute nodes) must keep sending data to each other, slowing down the overall simulation. In this project, the company will develop new algorithms to carefully manage this data exchange and evenly distribute the simulation work across multiple compute nodes. This will allow much faster acoustic simulation. It will also make it practical to reliably model the acoustics of large spaces for all audible sound frequencies. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project touches many aspects of architectural design. The cloud-based acoustic simulation service (CBASS) is aimed at architects and acoustical consultants. There are more than 105,000 architects, 17,500 architecture firms, and 2,000 acoustical consultants in the US. Acoustic simulation is a $2.3 billion market. CBASS will be used to understand the acoustics of a building before it is built, reducing the time and money spent on fixing acoustic issues. By running in the cloud, CBASS will also reduce the need for architects and acoustical consultants to buy costly computers, and will let them run and monitor simulations using laptops, tablets, or smartphones. It will also speed up the architectural design process. We will offer free subscriptions to CBASS to students; this will help train the next generation of architects to think about acoustics at an earlier point in the design phase. More generally, increased use of acoustic simulation will lead to better sounding spaces for everyone: classrooms that are more conducive to learning, hospitals that more conducive to healing, more enjoyable theaters, and quieter homes.