Research Interests
Underwater acoustics in the audible and ultrasonic frequency ranges
Biography
As a Research and Development Engineer, Wayne specializes in developing data acquisition and field deployable systems.
His work has included:
- Creating an autonomous suspended sediment monitoring system and an active pulse echo sonar system for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) catfish ponds.
- Collaborated on laboratory experiments using acoustic monitoring techniques to measure suspended fine sediments, leading to a field-deployable DSP data collection system. This system has been deployed in rivers and streams, including the Harris Bayou in Mississippi and the Elwha River in Washington, and is currently used for long-term monitoring on the Rio Grande.
- Developing a 72-channel data acquisition system to quantify bedload transport after the removal of the Elwha and Glines dams. This project led to a three-year study on the Trinity River in California to aid salmon spawning. I also led a Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program project to collect acoustic data on sea turtle interactions with Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) on shrimp trawl nets, developing an algorithm to enumerate these interactions.
- Working with NCPA’s Porous Media Research Team and the Office of Naval Research on software for the Laser Multi-Beam Differential Interferometric Sensor.
- Collaborating with the U.S. Forestry Service to measure acoustic signals from prescribed burns to model intensity, species, and moisture content.
Associations & Societies
Member, American Geophysical Union
Publications
Carpenter, W. O., Goodwiller, B. T., Wren, D. G., Taylor, J., AuBuchon, J., & Brown, J. (2022). Field testing a high-frequency acoustic attenuation system for measuring fine suspended sediments and algal movements. Applied Acoustics, 198, 108980.
Kuhnle, R. A., Wren, D. G., Hilldale, R. C., Goodwiller, B. T., & Carpenter, W. O. (2017). Laboratory calibration of impact plates for measuring gravel bed load size and mass. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 143(12), 06017023.
Hilldale, R. C., Carpenter, W. O., Goodwiller, B., Chambers, J. P., & Randle, T. J. (2015). Installation of impact plates to continuously measure bed load: Elwha River, Washington, USA. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 141(6), 06014023.
Carpenter, W. O., Goodwiller, B. T., Chambers, J. P., Wren, D. G., & Kuhnle, R. A. (2014). Acoustic measurement of suspensions of clay and silt particles using single frequency attenuation and backscatter. Applied Acoustics, 85, 123-129.
Education
B.S. Physics, Millsaps College (2000)
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis (2002)
M.B.A. Business Administration, The University of Mississippi (2007)