Weekly meetings for Fall 2011 semester are held on Tuesdays at 7pm room 2245
Engineering Building MSU.
Audio Enthusiasts and Engineers (AEE ) is a student organization, that was started in the fall semester of 2006. The group was founded by Stas Todromovich and David Lenz, and our faculty advisor, Dr. Gregory Wierzba.
Stas (left) and Dave (right) at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California on October 5th, 2006. They were there to represent AEE at the 121st Audio Engineering Society Convention.
We aim to design, prototype and build audio equipment. We are always open to interesting new members, from all majors with skills and passion. We are a project oriented group, focused on experimenting, researching and building audio projects. We present the built ptototypes to the public at events like the MSU Engineering Design Day, the AEE Music Festival and other epic events. Our group meetings and educational forums are also open to MSU students to learn, teach, share thoughts and ideas to encourage innovation and discovery in the field of audio.
AEE Formation
Here is what you need to start AEE at a university:
-Faculty Advisor: Choose a professor or faculty member that shares the same interest in audio. We have Dr. Gregory Wierzba an Electrical Engineering professor as our advisor and he is a perfect match to our organization because of his expertise and passion for music equipment.
-Elect a President and Vice President(s): We have one President and two Vice-Presidents. Having two vice presidents eases the workload and gives more people to collaborate with. The President organizes the members and is the communicator of the entire group. Their job is to make sure people have the resources to work on projects. The Vice-President(s) help the President relay information to the group and help on presidential tasks.
-Contact: Make a email account for the President and Vice-Presidents to work from (gmail works great). Have all the members submit their E-mail addresses to it’s contacts for easy communication. The account also lets people from the outside world communicate back to you.
-Audio project ideas: Got a cool music idea? Great! Lets do it! Competition worthy?
-Project Timeline: How are you going to get the project done? What intermediate steps and goals do you have? By when do you want it completed?
-Documentation: Make sure to have a digital camera or video camera to document your project’s progress. This is important so you have evidence and history of your hard work! It also lets people enjoy and view your projects. Document every week.
-Team Leaders: For your projects, pick or have a person volunteer to be a team leader that is interested, reliable and has the best fitted skills related to the project. Team Leaders organize the project members (through e-mail and meetings) and create the work ethic of the group. Good team leaders produce good team projects.
-Meetings: Here, we have two sets of meetings; Project Team Meetings and General Meetings. Project Team Meetings are organized by the Team Leader and the project team members. They decide location and time based on their schedules. These meetings are lab time where the magic of building and designing happens. They usually happen once but sometimes twice a week. General Meetings happen once a week usually at the end of the week (us:Thusday’s at 7:00) and is a time for every team to get together and discuss/update what they accomplished during the week. This is also a time for members to express ideas, plan action, show cool audio related videos, and have fun. Reserve a room in a building at the same time, same day every week for the whole semester so it becomes a scheduled routine made easy.
-Forums: Forums are presentations that are put together by members on any audio related topic that they are interested in. The idea of having forums let members express to other audiophiles what they are interested in, what they think is cool or have a public service announcement describing what is out there in the audio world. Our forums are often technical, meaning the presenter is explaining how something works (breaking down the circuit, defining what is going on with the device, why does it work) but also forums could be a discussion on a topic. Discussions are open presentations about an audio subject where there is a presenter moving through topics but everyone can speak up and share what they know about the subject. Document the forum, this is when a video camera is a good tool. AEE has had forums on guitar tube amps and effect pedals, headphones, building speakers, hearing conservation, lowpass filters and much much more. Forums are usually held after our General Meetings and are limited to about 30min.
-Events: Displaying your projects at public events is a good way for publicity and possible sponsors. Participating in events also show your department at your school that you are interacting with the community which again could lead to more funding. We participate in the College of Engineering’s Design Day where student engineers present semester projects. Or you could showcase at your own event. Our events have been loud live music for everyone. We set up a huge PA system on campus and fill the area with loud electronic music played by live DJ’s or sometimes a local band shreds it off. Playing loud music on campus is a easy way to let people know who you are and to recruit new interested members.
-Funding: Ask your department for funding. At MSU, the College of Engineering has a budget for engineering organizations so every fall we write a funding proposal stating why we need money (building projects!), what the money is used for and how it is going to be used effectively. You can also get sponsors to help financially or even collaborate on projects.
Sponsors
Our sponsors play a major roll in AEE. From financial backing, parts and resources to engaging personally in projects.
A big thank you to:
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering MSU
College of Engineering MSU
NKK Switches
Neutrik
Microsoft
BP
Get in touch with AEE
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