ARiA takes pride in the excellence of the employees who enable us to consistently deliver innovative and practical solutions to our customers. Of the staff across our two branch offices, 60% hold a degree beyond the bachelor’s, 60% have been first authors of articles published in peer-reviewed journals, and 60% have presented their work at technical conferences. Our technical and scientific staff have delivered fielded Navy systems, and been principal investigators, project managers, and technical leads for R&D programs across industry and government.
ARiA Management
Dr. Jason E. Summers, Ph.D. Chief Scientist / Managing Member
As Chief Scientist and Managing Member of Applied Research in Acoustics LLC, Dr. Summers established ARiA to use real research to meet real-world challenges in real-world systems by bringing together the innovation and rigor he cultivated in academia and at top DoD laboratories with the agility, field knowledge, and customer focus he refined while directing development of key Navy systems in industry.
Recognized worldwide as a leading expert in signal processing for Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and in theoretical and computational modeling of acoustic processes in air and in the ocean, Dr. Summers has been key in the development of both the theoretical underpinnings and computational implementations of multiple computational models now in active use by the US Navy and commercial customers. Serving as Technical Lead for the Advanced-Development Team of NAVSEA’s Surface ASW Synthetic Trainer (SAST) Program he oversaw development of the first fully physics-based system for shipboard and school-house training on surface-ship sonar. Dr. Summers also provided R&D support for the award-winning Submarine Multi-Mission Team Trainer (SMMTT). Working in the field of room acoustics, he developed and validated improved mathematical and computational models able to address the pressing problem of predicting sound fields in coupled-room concert halls, introducing modifications to one of the primary commercial software packages used in room acoustics (CATT-Acoustic). These models have been broadly cited in the literature and widely adopted by the worldwide consulting community. The new insight and renewed rigor Dr. Summers brought to the problem led Leo L. Beranek to nominate him for the MacArthur “Genius” Award in 2004.
Dr. Summers maintains close ties with partners in academia, serving on dissertation committees at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and Aalto University, Finland and regularly lecturing in the graduate program in acoustics at RPI. He further maintains ties to cutting-edge research as an associate editor of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.