acoustics: (adj. acoustic) The science of sound.
app: Short for application, or a computer program designed for a specific task.
artificial intelligence: A type of knowledge-based decision-making exhibited by machines or computers. The term also refers to the field of study in which scientists try to create machines or computer software capable of intelligent behavior.
Bluetooth: A wireless technology that transmits data over short distances — typically around 1 meter (3.3 feet).
circuit: A network that transmits electrical signals. In the body, nerve cells create circuits that relay electrical signals to the brain. In electronics, wires typically route those signals to activate some mechanical, computational or other function.
colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.
digit: (in math) An individual numeral (from 0 to 9) used to represent a number or some part of a number.
digital: (in computer science and engineering) An adjective indicating that something has been developed numerically on a computer or on some other electronic device, based on a binary system (where all numbers are displayed using a series of only zeros and ones).
echo: To bounce back. For example, sound bouncing off walls of a tunnel, and returning to their source. Radio waves emitted above the surface can also bounce off the bedrock underneath an ice sheet — then return to the surface. Or ideas or events that seem to reflect one or more others, as a reverberating sound might.
electronics: Devices that are powered by electricity but whose properties are controlled by the semiconductors or other circuitry that channel or gate the movement of electric charges.
factor: Something that plays a role in a particular condition or event; a contributor.
novel: Something that is clever or unusual and new, as in never seen before. (in literature) A work of fiction.
prototype: A first or early model of some device, system or product that still needs to be perfected.
real time: A term that connotes immediacy; something is being studied, recorded and/or reported at the very time it is happening.
reverberate: The process of echoes returning to their source after bouncing off of hard surfaces.
sensor: A device that picks up information on physical or chemical conditions — such as temperature, barometric pressure, salinity, humidity, pH, light intensity or radiation — and stores or broadcasts that information. Scientists and engineers often rely on sensors to inform them of conditions that may change over time or that exist far from where a researcher can measure them directly.
smartphone: A cell (or mobile) phone that can perform a host of functions, including search for information on the internet.
sonar: A system for the detection of objects and for measuring the depth of water. It works by emitting sound pulses and measuring how long it takes the echoes to return.
sound wave: A wave that transmits sound. Sound waves have alternating swaths of high and low pressure.
submarine: A term for beneath the oceans. (in transportation) A ship designed to move through the oceans, totally submerged. Such ships — especially those used in research — are also known as submersibles.
system: A network of parts that together work to achieve some function. For instance, the blood, vessels and heart are primary components of the human body’s circulatory system. Similarly, trains, platforms, tracks, roadway signals and overpasses are among the potential components of a nation’s railway system. System can even be applied to the processes or ideas that are part of some method or ordered set of procedures for getting a task done.
technology: The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry — or the devices, processes and systems that result from those efforts.
tone: (in acoustics) The pitch of a sound, especially for musical notes.
vocal cords: A pair of membranes that are stretched over the opening of the larynx. They open when someone inhales air. They close when an animal holds his or her breath. But most importantly, they provide sounds — the voices — of animals. This happens as they vibrate when air is expelled from the lungs and squeezed through them. Animals can control the tension in these membranes, and how much they open. This provides the pitch of a sound and how loud it is, from a whisper to a bellow.
wave: A disturbance or variation that travels through space and matter in a regular, oscillating fashion.