The vision of the Mild Cognitive Impairment Empowerment Program (MCIEP) is to revolutionize the experience of people affected by MCI by creating a comprehensive approach that can be replicated nationally and internationally.
With the aim of speeding up development, testing and dissemination of evidence-based interventions for MCI, the Innovation Accelerator (IA) core is offering seed grants to support research in the following areas: therapeutic programming, technology, and the built environment.
The funded projects should result in innovative solutions, strategies or methodologies developed through a culture of collaboration among students, researchers, clinicians, and people with MCI in less than 12 months’ time.
Beginning in the fall of 2019, $150,000 in seed grants will be available each year for the next three years. Proposals can range from semester to year-long research projects and smaller proposals can target funds to convene valuable discussions, gather data, develop methods and metrics or to prototype new designs and technologies.
See the related file to the right for more information on the pre-proposal call and how to apply.
All pre-proposals will be evaluated by a review committee comprised of representatives from all cores of the MCIEP and individuals affected by MCI. Feedback from the committee will be given to all pre-proposals. Those selected for full proposals will be contacted by the end of the day on September 10.
For additional information or questions regarding the seed grant process email kimberly.seaton@design.gatech.edu
Looking forward to reading your pre-proposals,
Jennifer DuBose,
MCIEP's Innovation Accelerator Director
The decision to change the uniforms was spurred by Tech’s new partnership with adidas that began in 2018. Though the uniforms are not manufactured by adidas, they take design cues from updates to the new looks being worn across Georgia Tech Athletics.
Students and faculty collaborated with G2 Performance on the design. The base of the uniform is white, accented by Tech Gold. The drum major jackets are the inverse. The jackets are also marked with triangular slashes as a nod and homage to campus landmarks such as the Kessler Campanile and Tech Tower.
The new uniforms, made from a more flexible athletic fabric, will keep the band cooler in the South’s sweltering climate. They also include interchangeable short- and long-sleeved T-shirts to wear underneath a sleeveless jacket.
“It was important for us to retain the traditional elements of our band uniform while incorporating a modern look and feel,” said Chris Moore, director of Athletic Bands. “The modular approach gives us the flexibility to have short sleeves in the warmer weather and long sleeves when it is cooler, while maintaining the same overall look.”
Band members are also enjoying the breathability of the new uniforms. Jeremy Schonfeld, a trumpet section leader and computer science major, said, “On gameday this past weekend, I felt a breeze while marching on the field, which I never felt in the old uniforms.”
The band will next appear in their new kits on Saturday, Sept. 14, when Georgia Tech hosts The Citadel at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m.
Follow along with the band and their new uniforms this season at @GTBands on Facebook and @georgiatechband on Twitter and Instagram.
]]>Institute Communications
]]>As co-robots become prevalent at home, work, and public spaces, they need to become trust-worthy and socially believable agents if they are to be integrated into and accepted by society. The research will utilize the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence to gain knowledge about of the role of non-linguistic expressions in trust building. Findings from studies about non-linguistic emotional expressions such as prosody and gestures in music - one of the most emotionally meaningful human experiences - will be implemented in a group of newly developed personal robots. User experiments will be conducted to explore humans' reactions to - and trust building with - these prosody-driven robots.
Results of the study will lead to novel approaches for creating open and meaningful interactions between groups of humans and robots. The research will advance national prosperity by increasing engagement, relatability, and trust in large scale human-robot interactive scenarios such as personal robots in private and public spaces, work place training, education, and combat. The project takes an interdisciplinary approach, which will address fields such as cognitive science, communication, and music, while leading to progress in both science and engineering.
For more details, read about the grant awarded here: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1925178&HistoricalAwards=false
]]>joshua.smith@design.gatech.edu
404-385-5593
]]>The Halls possess a strong commitment to supporting Georgia Tech students both through scholarships and through mentoring students when they come to campus. Colonel Hall, a graduate of Georgia Tech’s Industrial Management program in 1967, serves as an adjunct distinguished professor of the practice in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication. He and his wife received the Ivan Allen Distinguished Alumni Award in 2017.
“I have been amazed to see the passion, curiosity, and intensity with which the Halls engage with our students as artists and scholars. This new scholarship provides a tremendous opportunity to support promising students in our new music technology program and to establish a collaboration with the Halls in the mentorship of our students,” says Jason Freeman, chair of the School of Music.
Hall is equally passionate about communication and music. He announced the scholarship at a Glee Club rehearsal earlier in the Spring semester, telling the Glee Club members that the inspiration for the scholarship came from the relationship he had built in rehearsals and performances with the ensemble in recent years.
The Halls chose to name the scholarship in honor of Jerry Ulrich, who has conducted the Glee Club since his arrival at Georgia Tech in 2003. Under his direction, the membership of the Glee Club has quadrupled in size and they have performed around the world, including a tour this spring to Scotland.
]]>joshua.smith@design.gatech.edu
404-385-5593
]]>Many of us have experienced that. And not in a spooky sci-fi way, but in a 21st-century technology way.
Over the past 10 to 15 years the evolution of smart, sensor-based products and systems has reshaped the way we interact with each other and the world around us.
This evolution will be discussed in a College of Design Research Forum on Thursday, September 27. The title of that form is, "When the World Talks Back … Connecting People and Things."
Sensor technology enables us to tap all kinds technologies and allows us to connect to things we have not been able to connect to before, in ways not previously possible, explained Jim Budd, chair and professor in the School of Industrial Design.
With sensors of the late 1900s and early 2000s, interactive products could take an action and respond to it.
Later, researchers realized they could attach micro-processors to sensors to collect data and could share that data, Budd said.
For years, sensors have turned on lights and opened doors for us. But now we have begun to realize even more possibilities, he said.
For example, a sensor on a door or building can let the us know who comes into the building and know when they leave, and then could share that knowledge. If that building knows who you are, it could even greet you!
Researchers realized we could incorporate these technologies into our homes. Now we wire our homes with technologies that can inform us of the weather outside to lighting levels.
Your house, connected to your smartphone, could tell you when someone comes to your home. Then you could communicate with the house, let it know what to tell that person, maybe even have a dialogue.
Some of these things are already happening. Budd said we have only scratched the tip of the iceberg. We are about 20 years into this use of interactive technology.
One of the biggest technological changes over the past 10-15 years, he said, has been the cell phone. Initially it was a device designed for talking.
Now, we use cell phones to gather information, communicate, hail rides, pay for food, and more. And if we ask a question, it can answer!
Interactive Technology in the College of Design
As a community, we recognize that things that we were once only able to dream about can actually happen, he said.
Budd, who is organizing the forum, said the discussion will compare a snapshot from the past with new initiatives today that connect us with the products around us, the buildings we inhabit, and the cars we drive, along with speculation of where we might be headed tomorrow.
He will lead off with a history of where we came from and others talk about their work.
This forum is also a reflection of collaboration across disciplines in the College. Participants cross two school and a research center: School of Architecture, School of Industrial Design, and the Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization.
Joining Budd at the forum will be Noah Posner, a research scientist in the IMAGINE Lab in the Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization; Stuart Romm, a professor of practice in the School of Architecture; and Wei Wang, an assistant professor in the School of Industrial Design.
Posner said his current work focuses “on creating interactive experiences that leverage physical interaction. Past work includes creating an interactive sandbox for visualizing gorilla location data in Rwanda and data collection devices for capturing street view style panoramas. He also is designing physical interfaces for spatial VR experiences, and involved in teaching physical prototyping to MS-HCI students. For the research forum, he will talk about how we prototype connections. He also will discuss methods of prototyping, how technology gets integrated into product prototypes, different hardware prototyping platforms, and how this translates into a course.
Romm said as a topic, “When the World Talks Back… Connecting People and Things,” is one “that increasingly challenges designers to explore how new environments will intersect the physical + digital worlds.” He will talk about an ongoing case study on how the interdisciplinary collaboration between architects, industrial designers, and experience designers are innovating spaces that integrate the physical and virtual realms. One example is the use of interactive technologies in the transformation of Georgia Tech’s historic main library into a 21st Century Research Library for the digital age.
Wang said we can anticipate that autonomous vehicles will have an impact on accelerating the transformation of automotive products into a transportation service. From the key criteria of human-computer interaction, Wang said he will talk about how to connect people and things in future autonomous driving through interactive technologies. He will also share some examples from experimental student project to sponsored research projects.
About the Research Forums
The College of Design Research Forums allow the College community and our friends across the campus to experience the design- and technology-focused research at Georgia Tech. From music technology to product design; from assistive technology to healthcare; from architecture to city planning, we explore the many ways technology can solve critical problems for the way we live.
The next research forum is scheduled for Thursday, November 8, in the Caddell Flex Space.
The title is, "Community Redevelopment in the Global South." This forum will explore ongoing projects designed to enhance the well-being of residents in the Global South in the face of its rapid growth and redevelopment.
Michael Elliott, an associate professor in the School of City and Regional Planning, will lead that discussion.
The forums take place from 11a-12p. All forums going forward will be in the Caddell Flex Space.
]]>Enjoy one before the semester ends:
Institute Communications
]]>FaceSynth is an interactive audio exhibit that allows visitors to “play” an analog synthesizer with their facial expressions. FaceSynth was created by Bachelor of Music Technology students Carter Culwell and Daniel Kuntz, and was also a runner up project at the 2018 Moog Hackathon. Sound Happening is a playful music-making installation where participants interact with balls while standing underneath a webcam that tracks the motion of the balls. The installation acts as an invisible keyboard where participants trigger tones depending on where they stand and the color of the ball, creating unique soundscapes. Ph.D. in Music Technology candidate Richard Savery contributed to this project.
To learn more about the projects and festival, read the whole article here: http://arts.gatech.edu/content/tech-goes-accelerate-smithsonian-creativity-and-innovation-festival?utm_medium=email&utm_source=dailydigest&utm_campaign=apr3&utm_content=accsmith
]]>joshua.smith@design.gatech.edu
]]>“It’s all about music,” said Gil Weinberg founding director of the College of Design’s Center for Music Technology (GTCMT). Weinberg is also a School of Music professor and School of Interactive Computing adjunct professor.
“Music is about rhythm, pitch, loudness, and tone. These are the same elements used to control vocal prosody, which helps convey emotion, humor, irony, and other subtle, yet crucially meaningful expressions. This project is about using music to allow our robot Shimi to show emotions not only through his voice, but through his body gestures as well.”
Shimi is a personal robot that communicates with humans through music-driven vocal prosody and gestures rather than words.
When Shimi debuted in 2012, it played songs from a user’s library, analyzed the music, and responded with corresponding gestures. Now, with the help of deep learning and with funding from the School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE), Shimi can learn emotional cues in people’s voices and respond with emotive voice and movement.
The project’s research team comprises Weinberg, Ph.D. student Richard Savery, and master’s student Ryan Rose.
Using deep learning analysis of music and language datasets, the team trained Shimi to communicate emotions using non-linguistic channels. Shimi can also analyze a person’s tone and speech in order to respond in an emotionally appropriate way.
“By modeling humans’ affective communication cues, such as body gestures and vocal prosody, we’ve created a language focused on emotion. With Shimi, we are not projecting words but still allowing for affective communication to occur,” Weinberg said.
Avoiding the “Uncanny Valley”
“Society has seen countless efforts to re-create humanoid robots to interact with humans. Many of these robots fall prey to the same issue as their predecessors: The Uncanny Valley. In the Uncanny Valley, robots simply become too close to human, without being human, which tend to lead to a sense of eeriness and revulsion.
“What then if a robot wasn’t trying to sound exactly like a human? What if we celebrated a robot for what it is, and for the things it can do that humans can’t?” Weinberg said.
This is the logic behind steering clear of identifiable words, and instead equipping Shimi with the ability to respond to humans with non-verbal sounds while still being able to convey a general sense of mood.
“If you are upset, Shimi could project that it is also upset, or maybe decide to encourage you using happy prosody,” Weinberg said.
Creating a Language Built on Deep Learning and Music
To create Shimi’s voice, tone, and improvisational response for this project the team fed a Deep Learning network with:
By processing these datasets on NVIDIA’s Jetson Board, an embedded GPU optimized for machine learning, Weinberg and his team have been able to allow Shimi to use his new affective voice and sing as a self-contained robot that does not need network connectivity.
Through the desire to combine music with deep learning, Georgia Tech researchers have coincidentally shown that communication simply needs empathy and a tune to take place.
“What we are most excited about is the ability to synthesize various attributes of music, language, and movement through deep learning, and project music as the core element of a robotic communication to show that our robots can understand and convey human emotion,” Weinberg said.
]]>
Kristen Perez
]]>We talked with Leigh ahead of the forum to learn more about the complexity of urban automation.
To start, what are we referring to when we say “urban automation”? Can you give a couple of examples?
There is no one definition of urban automation. Loosely it refers to hardware and software developments that substitute for previous mechanical and human-operated physical or decision-making systems to regulate and service urban functions. These developments are largely enabled by advances in information and communication technologies.
Some present examples include, drones, robots, and sensors. Others will evolve in the future.
How does the topic of urban automation fit in with research at the College of Design?
In planning, it can potentially be used to create smart cities, with optimized functions such as transportation, energy and water use, improving the economy and the environment.
In architecture, urban automation is used to make intelligent buildings that are more energy efficient, and meet human needs of comfort, for example in office environments.
In building construction, it is used in the process of putting up buildings and creating infrastructure. We use drones to survey the physical condition of buildings and roads, and to access damage of natural disasters and develop more effective responses.
In industrial design, much of that focuses on products we use every day in urban environments, ties into the development of autonomous vehicles, and in the more novel application of wearable technologies,
In music, urban automation can capture and analyze the sounds of a city, helping to track noise pollution, monitor traffic patterns, or generate new musical compositions.
How does your research into the economics of the robotics industry play into this research?
I focus on local economic development planning and how technology drives change that affects the opportunities for work, standards of living, and the strength of local industries that support local economies.
One key point is that the majority of economic activity in our jobs is located in metropolitan areas. We are very much a metropolitan nation, rather than the traditional view of urban and rural nation. So the use of robotics in firms has the potential to make them more competitive and productive. It also has the potential to eliminate jobs, which would affect people’s ability to live in cities and have a high quality of life and standard of living. It also has the potential to change existing work and create new jobs.
My work is focused on understanding this. I’m primarily focused on the manufacturing sector, because that is where robotics are most in use at this point.
What is the most pressing concern that urban automation raises?
The most pressing concern is the reason we are having this forum: ethics and values. We know in many ways that urban automation has the potential to significantly transform the world that we live in. We also know our metro areas have longstanding, yet to be resolved, issues of justice for different communities and demographic groups.
There is a lot of controversy over artificial intelligence, which is a key component of urban automation, and to what extent does it augment, or substitute for, the capacity to make decisions by humans.
All of this has major societal implications. Rather than create the technology without considering these potential impacts, the focus here is on: How do we make choices about the urban automation we use? What is our framework for developing these technologies, to be more conscious of the impact of that?
Relative to that are issues of, "Is it going to be accessible for all? How do we build in safety factors?," because we would hope that “do no harm” is a key criteria for deployment of urban automation.
Will it give us the privacy that we expect to have? Privacy is a highly valued aspect of modern life.
It’s also important to make sure that no one is left out of the benefits that can occur with the best of urban automation has to offer.
How do we address these privacy and ethical concerns?
We don’t yet have all the answers or solutions that we need. That is why it is important to have the discussion that we are planning for in our forum. We need to get these concerns to the forefront of the development of technology.
One pressing concern is informing people about how their data will be used. Much of urban automation is about data collection. That data is used to develop software and hardware, forms of automation, as well as products.
We have some ways to opt out, but it is all primitive and legally driven responses. We need more work on that.
How do we ensure a world that is inclusive and benefits all?
The hope is that urban automation will allow us to optimize the functions of smart cities such as transportation, energy, water use, improve the economy and the environment, and improve access to education and training.
The goal is to improve the functions offered in urban areas and the ability of people to participate in society and the economy.
Urban automation should help the people who create and manage cities achieve goals of “smart cities that are just cities.”
Also on the Panel
Joining Leigh on the panel will be Jason Borenstein, associate director of the Center for Ethics and Technology at the School of Public Policy; Carolyn Phillips, of the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (formerly AMAC Research Center); and Dennis Shelden, director of the Digital Building Lab and a professor in the School of Architecture. Leigh is also a professor in the School of City and Regional Planning.
Borenstein will focus on the ethics of autonomous vehicles and other computing technologies. While they hold much promise, he suggests that ethical issues emerging from their design and deployment must be addressed in a consistent and ongoing manner. Ethical issues that autonomous vehicles raise include the privacy of those who ride in them, vulnerability to hacking, and how they may interact with pedestrians or other entities in the surrounding environment.
Phillips notes that we are at a defining moment as we gather at the crossroads of urban automation, ethics, and individuals with disabilities. The ethical implications when considering individuals with disabilities quickly move beyond beneficence, justice, and autonomy to specific concerns of privacy, safety, and informed choice. As we create disruptive, transformational technologies, it is critical that we pause to ensure we have employed an ethical framework throughout each phase of development and deployment so we can design for true inclusion.
Shelden will talk about urban automation from the perspective of the built environment -- buildings, infrastructure and cities – which is increasingly becoming “smart,” as physical spaces and devices in these spaces are connected to simulations and data platforms on the cloud. This presents opportunities for improved understanding of the behaviors of built environments and the interactions of occupants in these environments. At the same time, important questions of information, individuality, and culture are becoming more pressing. Questions of data privacy and ownership, security, and identity that are becoming critical questions for individuals and for societies will become pressing in the design and operation of the built environment.
About the Research Forums
The College of Design Research Forums allow the College community and our friends across the campus to experience the design- and technology-focused research at Georgia Tech. From music technology to product design; from assistive technology to healthcare; from architecture to city planning, we explore the many ways technology can solve critical problems for the way we live.
This forum will be January 24, 2019, 11 a.m. - Noon, in the Caddell Flex Space.
The final research forum of the 2018-19 academic year is scheduled for Thursday, March 7, in the Caddell Flex Space.
]]>The Midwest Clinic hosted over 18,000 guests this year from all 50 states in the US and over 30 countries worldwide. It offers guests interested in music education an array of clinics and exhibits, as well as access to music and teaching icons. The conference also focuses on industry trends and future topics in business and music education.
]]>On September 26, 2018, the Diversity and Inclusion Council welcomed Peggy McIntosh, Senior Research Associate of the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and founder of the National S.E.E.D. Project on Inclusive Curriculum (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity), to campus to help facilitate a conversation about diversity and inclusion between faculty, students, and staff at Georgia Tech. Kaye Husbands Fealing, Professor and Chair of the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy and member of the Executive Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2017-2020), and Robert Kirkman, Associate Professor for the School of Public Policy, were invited to join in the discussion and share their personal experiences with diversity and inclusion. Following the panel discussion, the Council shared additional questions submitted by the audience with McIntosh, Husbands Fealing, and Kirkman for their input.
Question: What practical methods can be employed to restructure our education system to expand inclusion, particularly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields?
Husbands Fealing: One item I would offer here is to have policies and governance on how to conduct searches for faculty, staff and students, where the search or recruiting committees reflect our diverse society (not just the representation we see on campus).
Question: When you are faced with a tricky situation, what would be a good technique to address it while simultaneously bringing awareness to diversity and inclusion?
McIntosh: I sometimes speak autobiographically and say, "When I am faced with this kind of situation, I automatically go to questions about diversity and inclusion in my own head, and whether they bear on the situation." I also sometimes say, "I have a divided mind here -- feeling both x and y." I try not to sound like the expert, but rather to talk about my process of thinking through how tricky situations are placed within contexts that carry power dynamics and bear on equity.
Husbands Fealing: In my experience, I first think about what the final outcome needs to be before I respond to the situation. In my experience, I find it expedient to respond with facts and poise. It is important in my view to have my best self-present. What will be remembered is not the first affront, but what I do in response.
Question: How do you address people that try to ignore their own power in addressing diversity?
McIntosh: I am not sure what is meant by the phrase "try to ignore." When I am with people who have power through privilege, but don't seem to realize it, I just keep saying again and again that privilege brings power with it and that people who have privilege have far more power than most of them have recognized. I keep raising the question of how people will use their power, their unearned power, to weaken systems of unearned power. I think most white people have been trained to think of themselves as not having much power that they can use towards social change. But indeed we white people have considerable power just through being white, even if we grew up with class disadvantage.
Husbands Fealing: It is important for everyone to understand that (a) diversity is often a benefit to all over time, and (b) if we create opportunities for growth, then diversity is not a zero-sum game. So, getting individuals to understand that the pie can be bigger even if various groups get larger wedges is key. Of course, fairness is paramount, but what is perceived to be fair is subjective.
Question: Since you are speaking to a roomful of designers – have you noticed any particular physical design features that support or hinder inclusion?
Husbands Fealing: Yes! Often I am on a stage where there is no ramp to get to the podium or dais. That is a clear signal to someone with a physical disability that they are not welcomed.
McIntosh: I have noticed that in schools, that is school buildings, the design of the front hall makes a big difference. If there are many tables to sit at and many chairs, that can make it feel like a cafe or a conversation nook. This makes students mingle more freely with people who do not look like them. In fact, I have come to say to school faculty groups that I believe they must reengineer and reshape the school entrance hall to prevent depression! In addition, I strongly recommend that small classes be configured as a circles with everyone facing each other, rather than having some look at the backs of heads of others, in rows. The mode called Serial Testimony is a structure for discussion which matches the circle. People can write to me (mmcintosh@wellesley.edu) to request my description of Serial Testimony. My assistant Rachel Nagin adds, "Buildings tell stories about who we are and what we value. Many recently built school buildings are designed much like prisons and built with cheap materials, which tells us quite lot about what we think of our students, especially our public school students. So as you analyze and design spaces, think about what's being valued."
Question: Can you talk about the importance of transparency in hiring and admissions and how that affects diversity and inclusion? Also how can we have increased diversity among faculty and professionals?
Husbands Fealing: This is a really complex question that requires several paragraphs to respond adequately. So, in a nutshell, recognition that diversity, inclusion, and equity are important in concept and practice is paramount. Leadership should be all-in, not just making comments in the open but not following through with actions—policies are guidelines to actions. Often I hear, “Well, we just cannot find anyone…they don’t exist.” That is just not the case, though in some fields there is a low percentage of women or minorities. Networks can be used to find individuals to interview or to work on projects. The one caveat I should mention here—many of us get over worked and need to say “no” sometimes when asked to take on tasks. Junior faculty should be protected from placement on such committees. Yet, there is work to be done.
McIntosh: To increase diversity among faculty and professionals, they must be willing to redesign job descriptions, putting them on a broader base than before. This means rethinking everything that the institution is about. They must make sure that any candidate pool includes people from marginalized groups. Search committees must do the extra work needed and cast their nets wide to get beyond the usual habits of search committees, which include "looking for the best man for the job."
Question: How can we improve diversity without tokenizing people?
McIntosh: In two universities where I have worked, the decision was made to hire two people of color at least, rather than one, for a previously all-white department, and two or more women for a previously all-male department. This helped to work against the appearance and feelings of tokenism.
Husbands Fealing: Exactly…this is really important and, again, would take a few paragraphs to give examples of how this could work. Perhaps the best answer to this question is found in the literature. Someone should do a brief literature search to give readers of the article ability to explore this topic in more detail. Attached, please find a report on this topic that a colleague and I prepared for the National Science Foundation (NSF) in fulfilment of a grant from NSF. We also published a special issue of American Behavioral Scientist in May 2018: http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/absb/62/5.
Let’s keep this conversation going! We need to hear from you on other ways we can broaden and raise awareness on key themes related to diversity and inclusion at Georgia Tech. Send your questions to Carmen Wagster, carmen.wagster@design.gatech.edu, and we will continue this discussion to help us all pursue a more diverse and inclusive community here at Georgia Tech.
The College of Design Diversity and Inclusion Council members include Julie Kim, Associate Chair for the School of Architecture; Catherine Ross, Harry West Professor for the School of City and Regional Planning and Director for the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development; Jerry Ulrich, Associate Professor for the School of Music; Xinyi Song, Assistant Professor for the School of Building Construction; Michelle Rinehart, ex-officio Council member and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Outreach for the College of Design; Astha Bhavsar, undergraduate student, School of Architecture; and Chirag Venkatesan, graduate student, School of Building Construction.
]]>“Earsketch is thrilled to be working with the Technology Association of Georgia to bring coding to schools across Georgia. We’re always looking for ways to further Computer Science in as many classrooms as possible, and happy to contribute to this occasion,” says Jason Freeman, Chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Music and co-founder of Earsketch. The program continues to grow – this week, the program reached a milestone of 300,000 individual users.
First developed in 2011, Earsketch's userbase has expanded to more than 11,000 students per month. Many of these students are in Advanced Placement Computer Science classes in metro Atlanta high schools, but EarSketch's userbase covers more than 300 schools in all 50 states, and more than 100 countries worldwide.
]]>“Having the ability to spread the importance of the arts and education, while representing one of the largest music corporations in the industry and Georgia Tech, is a dream come true”, Crotts’ says. “Being able to connect with musicians from around the world and share our mission will be a wonderful opportunity for the visibility of our program moving forward.”
Dr. Crotts will perform on Bach trumpets, while continuing to remain a sought after clinician, performer and adjudicator in the music industry.
]]>
joshua.smith@design.gatech.edu
404-385-5593
]]>
One grant, titled "Broadening Participation in Computer Science Through Programming and the Arts Across Learning Spaces,” focuses on developing new systems and curricula that connect in-school and out-of-school learning experiences and connect music to other art forms such as dance, video, lyrics, and storytelling. The other grant, titled "Engaging High School Students in Computer Science with Co-Creative Learning Companions,” focuses on developing an artificially intelligent extension to EarSketch that guides students through technical and creative decisions as they write code to make music.
]]>(404) 385-5593
]]>During her visit, Ting attended conducting classes taught by the TMC head of the conducting program, Stefan Asbury, and observed BSO rehearsals and other masterclasses. The opportunity to learn from world-famous musicians, as well as the chance to have conducting lessons in the same room where Bernstein used to teach himself, was not an opportunity Ting will ever forget. “Tanglewood was truly amazing and I was very honored to be selected as a member of the conducting seminar. The opportunity to observe great musicians including Andris Nelsons, Yo-Yo Ma, and John Williams work together was life-changing, and I am excited to share what I have learned this summer with all my ensemble musicians," says Ting.
]]>DuBose is the associate director of the SimTigrate Design Lab and was previously a senior research associate.
Describing DuBose, Craig Zimring, director of the SimTigrate Design Lab, said, “Jennifer is unique in her drive to make the world better using research, and in her commitment to building systems and partnerships to do that. She’s great.”
As noted in her promotion packet, DuBose “has consistently demonstrated a high level of scholarly achievement and technical, managerial, and entrepreneurial productivity. She has established a program of healthcare design research that seeks to bring academic evidence to the practice of design in order to improve healthcare outcomes.”
DuBose said, “The promotion process takes a lot of effort, but it feels good to look back over the sum of my work at Georgia Tech and have my accomplishments recognized by my peers.”
The promotion process begins at the unit level. The candidate must assemble and submit a CV, a package of their work, and three external letters of recommendation. The package is subject to peer review and the unit director adds a recommendation. The package then moves up through several committees until it reaches the president, who makes the final decision.
As the associate director of SimTigrate, DuBose is responsible for the operations of the Lab as well as project development and research. SimTigrate is an interdisciplinary Lab that is at the forefront of design research, and is working to create a better built environment, particularly in healthcare.
At SimTigrate, DuBose has created a research team comprised of faculty and students, from undergraduate to doctoral levels, to conduct high-impact research. She has stitched together funding from multiple sources to build a research program in evidence-based design. At the same time, she often manages several projects at once.
Nancey Green Leigh, the associate dean for research in the College, said DuBose’s “years of experience and contributions to advancing the field of healthcare design are nationally recognized and have been validated through external peer review.” She has 11 refereed publications
DuBose “has been the PI or co-PI on more than $4.5 million in research projects, mentoring over 40 students involved in center research. She has also made significant service contributions to the College, including mentoring other research scientists,” Leigh said. She called DuBose’s promotion well-deserved.
Among DuBose’s recent research is her work on the areas of light and sleep for inpatient settings and the space layout and teamwork in outpatient clinics.
The Lab’s light and sleep research began with an exploration of the impact that disruptions in hospital environments have on patient sleep and the resulting harm. Her work has explored the range of disruptions and her publications have presented strategies to improve sleep for patients. She has also contributed to the study of light’s impact on daily biological rhythms and how it works in healthcare environments.
Several projects examining space layout and teamwork under DuBose’s leadership have led the way in understanding how design can support the growing trend in collaborative teams in outpatient clinics. Through field research, analysis of occupant behavior and workspace layout, and a review of the literature, her team has developed recommendations for successful implementation of shared team rooms that support collaboration and communication.
Reflecting on her work, DuBose said, “I feel fortunate to have been able to collaborate on research projects with academic faculty and many different students over the years. It is really nice to have such a close connection with the academic mission of the College.”
At the College of Design, which she joined in 2007, DuBose took a lead in forming and growing the SimTigrate Design Lab, which works with Emory Healthcare, Mayo Clinic, Positive Impact Health Centers, Mercy Care, the Pacific Northwest National Lab, and many other partners to use the built environment to improve health and healthcare.
She has a career of more than 18 years at Georgia Tech, including five years at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).
Long committed to improving the lives of people through direct action and by environmentalism, DuBose in the 1990s served in the Peace Corps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, worked for the Georgia Tech’s Center for Sustainable Technology getting sustainability incorporated into the curriculum, and worked for Interface, Inc. – a carpet company -- where she established their carbon accounting program and the first corporate carbon neutral product.
She received her bachelor’s degree from Oglethorpe University and an MS in Public Policy from Georgia Tech. She joined the College of Design (then the College of Architecture) in 2007 after working in the Sustainable Facilities and Infrastructure group at GTRI.
On a personal level, DuBose also does her part to improve the world with her small organic garden in Intown Atlanta, where she grows cotton, peanuts, and vegetables.
]]>To reflect this, every year the AASL releases a list of websites that best represent these goals, stating that each website on their 2018 list works to "foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration." They must also be free to use, user friendly, and encourage a community of learners. Earsketch was both nominated and voted to this honor by the members of the association, which are school library professionals.
Earsketch is designed to teach students to create their own musical compositions by way of coding (using either Python or Javascript). This is done by using code to string together a collection of beats, loops, and sound effects to create original compositions.
Although it is primarily used by high school students, it has been used by students from the fifth grade all the way up to college courses. Teachers can use Earsketch as a platform for a coding class or club, or of course just for individual use.
Co-founded in 2011 by Georgia Tech School of Music professor Jason Freeman and School of Literature, Media, and Communication professor Brian Magerko, Earsketch has been used by over 190,000 students in all 50 states in the United States, and over 100 countries worldwide.
]]>
Marketing and Event Coordinator
404-385-5593
]]>Earsketch, a program designed to merge programming with composing music, was recently featured in We Are DCSD, a magazine published by the Dekalb County School District. The article discusses how many computer science classes in the district are catching code fever in no small part thanks to the program.
Developed by Jason Freeman and Brian Magerko, Earsketch allows students to learn to code in either Python or Javascript while manipulating loops, composing beats, and applying sound effects.
Alicia Harvey, a teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. high school, explains the appeal of the program to students succinctly. “Music is a natural gateway to learning,” she says. “I think that’s true mainly because it just feels good. Music is a language we all speak, in many genres.”
The Dekalb county school district continues to partner with Earsketch, even going so far as to host their own competition for students to show off their Earsketch creations. Ralph Jones, one of the students from the winning school, Stephenson High School, explained how much the competition - and the program itself - means to him and his team.
“We won because we cared about what we were supposed to be learning,” Jones says.
“This was more than just another assignment.”
To learn more, you can request a copy of the We are DCSD magazine here.
]]>Georgia Tech School of Music
840 McMillan Street
Atlanta GA 30332-0456
]]>The first amputee to use it, a musician who lost part of his right arm five years ago, is now able to play the piano for the first time since his accident. He can even strum the Star Wars theme song.
“Our prosthetic arm is powered by ultrasound signals,” said Gil Weinberg, the Georgia Tech College of Design professor who leads the project. “By using this new technology, the arm can detect which fingers an amputee wants to move, even if they don’t have fingers.”
Jason Barnes is the amputee working with Weinberg. The 28-year-old was electrocuted during a work accident in 2012, forcing doctors to amputate his right arm just below the elbow. Barnes no longer has his hand and most of his forearm but does have the muscles in his residual limb that control his fingers.
Barnes’ everyday prosthesis is similar to the majority of devices on the market. It’s controlled by electromyogram (EMG) sensors attached to his muscles. He switches the arm into various modes by pressing buttons on the arm. Each mode has two programmed moves, which are controlled by him either flexing or contracting his forearm muscles. For example, flexing allows his index finger and thumb to clamp together; contracting closes his fist.
“EMG sensors aren’t very accurate,” said Weinberg, director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology. “They can detect a muscle movement, but the signal is too noisy to infer which finger the person wants to move. We tried to improve the pattern detection from EMG for Jason but couldn’t get finger-by-finger control.”
But then the team looked around the lab and saw an ultrasound machine. They partnered with two other Georgia Tech professors – Minoru Shinohara, Chris Fink (College of Sciences) and Levent Degertekin (Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering) — and attached an ultrasound probe to the arm. The same kind of probe doctors use to see babies in the womb could watch how Barnes’ muscles moved.
“That’s when we had a eureka moment,” said Weinberg.
When Barnes tries to move his amputated ring finger, the muscle movements differ from those seen when he tries to move any other digit. Weinberg and the team fed each unique movement into an algorithm that can quickly determine which finger Barnes wants to move. The ultrasound signals and machine learning can detect continuous and simultaneous movements of each finger, as well as how much force he intends to use.
“It’s completely mind-blowing,” said Barnes. “This new arm allows me to do whatever grip I want, on the fly, without changing modes or pressing a button. I never thought we’d be able to do this.”
This is the second device Weinberg’s lab has built for Barnes. His first love is the drums, so the team fitted him with a prosthetic arm with two drumsticks in 2014. He controlled one of the sticks. The other moved on its own by listening to the music in the room and improvising.
The device gave him the chance to drum again. The robotic stick could play faster than any drummer in the world. Worldwide attention has sent Barnes and Weinberg’s robots around the globe for concerts across four continents. They’ve also played at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Moogfest.
That success pushed Weinberg to take the next step and create something that gives Barnes the dexterity he’s lacked since 2012.
“If this type of arm can work on music, something as subtle and expressive as playing the piano, this technology can also be used for many other types of fine motor activities such as bathing, grooming and feeding,” said Weinberg. “I also envision able-bodied persons being able to remotely control robotic arms and hands by simply moving their fingers.”
Julmice was an Atlanta high school student and musician when she enrolled in a class called “Music Tech,” which she thought was a music theory course. She showed up the first day only to find out it was a class in programming, a subject that had always felt inaccessible to her.
“It seemed complex, something that was impossible and out of reach. Especially since there aren’t a lot of females in this industry.”
But Music Tech was an EarSketch class, so there was plenty of music to be made. The inclusion of music in the curriculum was ultimately what piqued her interest. “It was something that made sense. It made me really fascinated by the whole idea of computer science.”
It turned out that Julmice had a passion for both code and music. She completed her EarSkech class and began to study more coding languages on her own.
She signed up for AP Computer Science and began to see the field as a potential career path. “I enjoyed the puzzle, trying to figure out how things worked.”
Ogata will be performing with the Ribcage. “It’ll be a performance pretty similar to what I did at the Guthman Competition – 30 minutes, with 25 minutes performing and 5 minutes talking,” Ogata says of his upcoming performance. The festival is a celebration of creative exploration and research happening at the nexus of science, engineering, arts and design (SEAD). It features performances, conversations, and 48 interactive installations from across the 15 ACC schools around seven thematic areas: Civic Engagement, Art and Technology, Sustainability and Environment, Biomimetics, Health and Body, and Making.
]]>840 McMillan Street
Atlanta, GA 30332
]]>The summer 2017 edition of the Georgia Tech Alumni magazine takes a closer look at the work of Freeman, a professor and researcher at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology.
Users of the program can choose from a database of thousands of musical loops, using code to piece them together into unique compositions. The end result is a way for students to explore their creativity while learning programming at the same time.
“They’re learning a real programming language. It’s not some sandbox they’re learning in, it’s a real language that’s used throughout the industry. They can take those skills directly into another learning environment or eventually into a job,” Freeman says in the magazine.
First developed in 2011, the program's userbase has expanded to more than 11,000 students per month. Many of these students are in Advanced Placement Computer Science classes in metro Atlanta high schools, but EarSketch's userbase covers more than 300 schools in all 50 states, and more than 100 countries worldwide.
]]>
The creation was inspired by AT&T asking Professor Bruce Walker if he would create an audio file to help the visually impaired to also experience the eclipse. Walker, who holds appointments in both the College of Computing and the College of Sciences, worked with two Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology students to make the composition happen: Avrosh Kumar, an alumni, and Takahiko Tsuchiya, a Ph.D student.
“There are so many things during an eclipse that you can attempt to translate through audio,” said Kumar, who recently received his master’s degree in music technology. “Our main motive was to use music and sound to demonstrate what’s going on in the sky. At the same time, we wanted to create a pleasing, dramatic composition. It was a fine line to walk in order to achieve both goals.”
Click here to read the rest of the article.
]]>
Researchers fed the robot nearly 5,000 complete songs — from Beethoven to the Beatles to Lady Gaga to Miles Davis — and more than 2 million motifs, riffs and licks of music. Aside from giving the machine a seed, or the first four measures to use as a starting point, no humans are involved in either the composition or the performance of the music.
The first two compositions are roughly 30 seconds in length. The robot, named Shimon, can be seen and heard playing them here and here.
Ph.D. student Mason Bretan is the man behind the machine. He’s worked with Shimon for seven years, enabling it to “listen” to music played by humans and improvise over pre-composed chord progressions. Now Shimon is a solo composer for the first time, generating the melody and harmonic structure on its own.
“Once Shimon learns the four measures we provide, it creates its own sequence of concepts and composes its own piece,” said Bretan, who will receive his doctorate in music technology this summer at Georgia Tech. “Shimon’s compositions represent how music sounds and looks when a robot uses deep neural networks to learn everything it knows about music from millions of human-made segments.”
Bretan says this is the first time a robot has used deep learning to create music. And unlike its days of improvising, when it played monophonically, Shimon is able to play harmonies and chords. It’s also thinking much more like a human musician, focusing less on the next note, as it did before, and more on the overall structure of the composition.
“When we play or listen to music, we don’t think about the next note and only that next note,” said Bretan. “An artist has a bigger idea of what he or she is trying to achieve within the next few measures or later in the piece. Shimon is now coming up with higher-level musical semantics. Rather than thinking note by note, it has a larger idea of what it wants to play as a whole.”
Shimon was created by Bretan’s advisor, Gil Weinberg, director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology.
“This is a leap in Shimon’s musical quality because it’s using deep learning to create a more structured and coherent composition,” said Weinberg, a professor in the School of Music. “We want to explore whether robots could become musically creative and generate new music that we humans could find beautiful, inspiring and strange.”
Shimon will create more pieces in the future. As long as the researchers feed it a different seed, the robot will produce something different each time — music that the researchers can’t predict. In the first piece, Bretan fed Shimon a melody comprised of eighth notes. It received a sixteenth note melody the second time, which influenced it to generate faster note sequences.
Bretan acknowledges that he can’t pick out individual songs that Shimon is referencing. He is able to recognize classical chord progression and influences of artists, such as Mozart, for example.
“They sound like a fusion of jazz and classical,” said Bretan, who plays the keyboards and guitar in his free time. “I definitely hear more classical, especially in the harmony. But then I hear chromatic moving steps in the first piece — that’s definitely something you hear in jazz.”
Shimon’s debut as a solo composer was featured in a video clip in the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) keynote and will have its first live performance at the Aspen Ideas Festival at the end of June. It’s the latest project within Weinberg’s lab. He and his students have also created a robotic prosthesis for a drummer, a robotic third arm for all drummers, and an interactive robotic companion that plays music from a phone and dances to the beat.
]]>Alexander Lerch, a researcher at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, and his Ph.D. student are helping technology move in that direction. They are conducting research on machine learning and music information retrieval, which enables the extraction of information from audio files.
The more we know about music, the more we can understand how music affects people. For example, we want to know why music can make you have goose bumps. Ultimately, we might be able to create music that triggers that response, Lerch said.
He said that his research is where the industry is headed, and search engines, music streaming services, ads, and content providers could use the results.
Lerch and the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology (GTCMT) have received industry sponsorship for this research. It is the Center’s first industry sponsorship to solely support student research.
Gracenote, an entertainment data and technology company, is funding the research of this Ph.D. student. Gracenote’s technology powers the top music services, consumer electronics companies, automakers, media companies, and cable and satellite operators.
Markus Cremer, Vice President of Applied Research at Gracenote, declined to talk specifically about this research, but he said the company definitely finds this research important. “These technologies are particularly useful for browsing through large catalogs of songs quickly and efficiently,” he said.
“Gracenote has actively supported the research community in this field for more than a decade,” Cremer noted.
“Alexander’s team at Georgia Tech stands out as one of just a very few that effectively combines research focus with applicability,” he said. “We’ve been impressed with the level of knowledge, passion and problem-solving skills we have seen from everyone coming out of the Georgia Tech program from new hires to interns.”
Gil Weinberg echoes this praise for Lerch, who is also an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Music.
Weinberg, director of the Center, said Lerch came to Georgia Tech with an impressive background both in academia and industry.
“It is not surprising therefore that he would be the first faculty to bring industry research sponsorship to GTCMT. Gracenote's sponsorships demonstrates that Alexander’s groundbreaking research in music informatics can lead to strong impact not only in academic circles, but also in the continuously growing music technology industry,” he said.
Ph.D. student Siddharth Kumar Gururani is working with Lerch. He had been enrolled in the master’s program and did so well that after one year Lerch said they chose to invite him to join the Ph.D. program.
"Combining my computer science research with my passion for music was always a dream. Gracenote and the Center for Music Technology enabled me to do exactly that with the (music information retrieval) project," Gururani said.
Gururani has been working with Lerch for a few months now, and hopefully will be able to continue the research.
Cremer said that Gracenote plans to continue funding the research beyond the initial nine months.
Lerch said the field of music information retrieval is only about 10 to 15 years old and he is only one of a few people doing this work. He combines his engineering and music training in his research, which is at the intersection of signal processing, artificial intelligence, and music analysis.
His research focuses on creating the next generation of music software technology, enabling new ways of understanding, creating, accessing, and listening to music. His main research areas are Music Information Retrieval, Audio Content Analysis, and Intelligent Signal Processing.
Leigh is the associate dean for research in the College and last fall secured a grant from the National Science Foundation National Robotics Initiative to study the U.S. robotics industry and its economic impacts. She also is a professor in the School of City and Regional Planning.
She gave us her thoughts on robotics research and the industry.
1. Why should anyone research the robotics industry?
Robots are being developed and “employed” across the economy, on farms, in factories, warehouses, hotels and hospitals, to name just a few types of businesses using them. They will fundamentally transform daily life and work. Researchers are essential to making that transformation happen from a creative and technical perspective. They also have a key role to play in ensuring that robotics diffusion is not simply imposed upon society in a way the causes winners and losers, but, rather, leads to robotics’ full potential for enhancing all human experience and safeguarding the physical world.
2. How will robots affect city and regional planning?
City and regional planning includes a number of specializations that focus on the world in which we live, such as economic development, environment, housing, land use, and transportation. Robotics diffusion will affect all of these areas, but, currently, the most attention is being given to how autonomous vehicles (a kind of robot) will alter our transportation infrastructure, as well as greatly reduce the number of driver jobs.
3. Your peers are inventing and improving robots: What does Georgia Tech need to do to shape a future with robots?
We are already shaping a robotic future at Georgia Tech, but there is much to be done. Within the College of Design, in a great example of how robots can contribute to the arts and empowering those with disabilities, music Professor Gil Weinberg has developed a marimba-playing robotic musician that uses machine learning for jazz improvisation, as well as a prosthetic robotic arm for amputees that restores and enhances human drumming abilities. Associate Professor Russell Gentry offers a great example for architecture; he is using a Kuka robot for teaching robotic fabrication and for researching humans – robot collaboration in a fabrication setting.
4. What else should the Design academic community research about robots?
We have a major research focus on assistive technologies involving several schools and research centers of the College of Design and robots will be an increasing part of such technologies. How robots navigate existing street, sidewalk and building infrastructure, and how their presence might influence future design of such infrastructure is another rich research area. And how the deployment of robots in multiple economic sectors affects current and future jobs will be a critical economic development question tying in with many aspects of the Design academic community.
]]>Five College of Design instructors have won the 2016 Class of 1940 Course Survey Teaching Effectiveness Award. This award is given to a maximum of 40 Georgia Tech teachers who received the best scores on the Course-Instructor Opinion Survey for the question, "Overall, this instructor is an effective teacher".
The prize includes a one-time pre-tax award of $1000 and having their name printed in the Celebrating Teaching Day (March 14, 2017) program.
Michael Gamble, an associate professor in the School of Architecture, won the award for instructing ARCH 6069: Advanced Architecture Design I. Gamble also won the award in 2015, 2013, and 2012. He is the director of graduate studies for the School of Architecture, creative director for Gamble + Gamble Architects in Atlanta, and known for examining the environmental impact of design decisions, notably through his work with housing, energy, and building technologies.
Gamble’s research has received grants from: The Alcoa Foundation, The Kendeda Foundation, Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development, and the National Endowments of the Arts. He also received First Prize for Research in an international competition sponsored by the Environmental Design and Research Association.
Dan Immergluck won the 2016 award for instructing CP 6630: Government and Housing Markets. He's won the award twice before, both for CP 6611 | Real Estate Finance and Development.
As a professor in the School of City & Regional Planning, Immergluck teaches courses in statistics, real estate finance, housing policy, and social justice and equity planning. Professor Immergluck’s research concerns affordable housing, neighborhood change, community development finance, economic development, and other topics. His applied research focuses on housing and development issues in Atlanta as well as cities around the country.
Dan is the author of four books, more than four dozen scholarly articles, numerous book chapters and encyclopedia entries, and scores of applied research reports. His scholarship is widely cited, and he has been quoted extensively in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, and other media. He has testified several times before Congress and the Federal Reserve Board.
Young-Mi Choi, an associate professor in the School of Industrial Design, won the award for instructing ID 2022: ID Studio II. The class is set up to give students the chance to interact with a variety of users, such as users with spinal cord injuries confined to a wheelchair or users with visual impairments. This allows them to practice engagement techniques with real users, obtain feedback and test their designs.
Choi teaches product development, human factors, and ergonomics. Her research activities focus on applying evidence-based design in innovation and human-centered design. Her research focuses on topics related to the roles played by users, industrial designers, engineers, and marketers during the process of creating new products and assistive technologies. She is also the director of the I3 Lab and a project director with the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Wireless Inclusive Technologies (WIT RERC). She has received the National Science Foundation ADVANCE Program Women of Excellence Award, Outstanding Faculty Award and multiple course teaching effectiveness awards.
Stephen Sprigle, a professor with appointments in Bioengineering, Industrial Design and the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, won the award for instructing ID 6100 -- a required class for students in the Industrial Design and Human-Computer Interaction graduate programs.The class targets the science of design, professional ethics and responsible conduct of research. Students are challenged to think through the trade-offs between various design research methods, and discuss the history and profession of industrial design.
A biomedical engineer with a license in physical therapy, Sprigle directs the Rehabilitation Engineering and Applied Research Lab (REARLab), which focuses on applied disability research and development. The REARLab’s research interests include the biomechanics of wheelchair seating and posture, pressure ulcer prevention, and manual wheelchair propulsion. Its development activities include standardized wheelchair and cushion testing and the design of assistive and diagnostic technologies.
Jason Freeman, a professor in the School of Music, won the award for instructing MUSI 6003: Music Technology: History and Repertoire. His artistic practice and scholarly research focus on using technology to engage diverse audiences in collaborative, experimental, and accessible musical experiences. He also develops educational interventions (such as EarSketch) in K-12, university, and MOOC environments that broaden and increase engagement in STEM disciplines through authentic integrations of music and computing. His music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, exhibited at ACM SIGGRAPH, published by Universal Edition, broadcast on public radio’s Performance Today, and commissioned through support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Freeman’s wide-ranging work has attracted support from sources such as the National Science Foundation, Google, and Turbulence. He has published his research in leading conferences and journals such as Computer Music Journal, Organised Sound, NIME, and ACM SIGCSE. Freeman received his B.A. in music from Yale University and his M.A. and D.M.A. in composition from Columbia University.
]]>His program, EarSketch, has already introduced coding to students in Gwinnett and Fulton counties in the Atlanta, Georgia region. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that 90,000 students have used EarSketch to date.
Developed in collaboration with Georgia Tech's Digital Media program and CEISMIC (Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing), EarSketch allows students to use code to create their own music. While that might sound like an unusual combination at first, Freeman told the AJC that it isn't as odd as it sounds.
“Music is something that has a connection to the real things students care about. It’s kind of a magical way to get them engaged, and that’s a huge challenge in STEAM education. But with EarSketch, they can interact with music through code, and they can do things they could never do with a traditional music platform. We’re able to create interactive applications that ask users about the kind of music they want - pop, gospel, hip hop and so on – using a library of about 4,000 sounds as a starting point. Students can even record their own sounds, too," he said in an interview.
Earsketch is a rapidly growing tool that is being used in Atlanta area schools, but has expanded to multiple states nationally and is now being used in other countries. It is free to use for anyone, and can be accessed at https://earsketch.gatech.edu.
Read more about it in the feature story.
]]>https://earsketch.gatech.edu
]]>840 McMillan Street
Atlanta, GA 30332
404-385-7642
]]>It’s called TuneTable. Students move coasters along the table’s projection surface to make a musical piece using elements of computer programming. Then they tap the surface to play a series of beats, beeps and samples. The table will be installed at the Museum of Design Atlanta in early 2017 and Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry in the summer.
The project addresses a national need to make major strides in computer programming literacy for K-12 students.
“It’s also about changing the attitude about computation and exposing it to people that might not have sought it out otherwise,” said project lead Brian Magerko, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. “Hopefully some of them will think it is a cool, new way to express themselves.”
The table includes basic computing programming elements that people would use when learning programming formally for the first time, such as iteration and go-to statements.
TuneTable’s interactive surface uses computer vision to detect printed markers — officially they’re called fiducials — on the coasters. Each coaster is assigned a sound or programming command, such as a splitter or repeater. People link them together to form a chain of electronic and hip hop sounds.
“Manipulating notes, chords and rests requires a lot of music theory knowledge,” said Magerko, who also leads Georgia Tech’s Adaptive Digital Media lab. “Instead, we’re opting to manipulate music samples with code. And certain genres, such as electronic and hip hop, map very well computationally.”
Magerko said they’re also very appealing to underserved populations, such as women, African-Americans and Latinos. He and Georgia Tech College of Design Professor Jason Freeman learned that after designing a software program called EarSketch that teaches Python and Javascript at nearly 200 high schools across the country. EarSketch students use digital audio workstations and the programming languages to manipulate loops and compose music. TuneTable reimagines this experience within a museum exhibit.
“The table allows us bring the basics of computer programming out of the classroom and into more informal settings such as museums,” said Freeman, a co-principal investigator on the NSF grant. “Kids can be playful and social, just by walking up and giving it a try.”
Once the exhibit arrives in museums, people will be able to create their own music and email it to themselves. They can continue tinkering with the code when they get home using EarSketch or a tablet version of the software, which is being designed by Northwestern’s Mike Horn.
“We see the tablet app as a crucial connection point between what kids experience at the museum with TuneTable and what they learn in school with EarSketch,” said Horn. “We want it to give kids space and time to build up foundational computational literacy skills before the deep dive into learning Python or JavaScript.”
The project is supported in part by NSF grant AISL-1612644. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors.
]]>EarSketch teaches students core computational concepts and the Python and JavaScript languages. Using a digital audio workstation, students write code to create and remix music in popular styles such as hip hop and dubstep.
The software has been used by more than 75,000 students in all 50 states and more than 100 countries since launching in 2013. It is freely accessible to all teachers and students. Georgia Tech researchers created the program to address the national need to make major strides in computer programming literacy for K-12 students, especially among underserved populations.
“Students who study with EarSketch have been shown to make progress in both content knowledge and attitudes toward computer science,” said co-creator Jason Freeman, a professor of music in the College of Design. “EarSketch is especially effective at engaging female students in computing, whose gains in computing engagement in our research can be two or three times higher than their male peers.”
EarSketch will train 50 K-12 teachers in computer science principles this summer through in-person workshops and online training.
Freeman co-directs EarSketch with Brian Magerko, an associate professor in the Ivan Allen College School of Literature, Media, and Communication, in collaboration with Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) and the Institute for Computing Education. EarSketch is supported by the National Science Foundation, Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Scott Hudgens Family Foundation and Google.
This morning’s White House fact sheet kicks off CSEdWeek and highlights new actions of support for computer science education. President Barack Obama challenged the nation to create opportunities for every child to learn computer science during February’s State of the Union Address.
]]>AMAC Accessibility Solutions and Research Center this year marks 10 years of providing products and services to those with disabilities.
Also this year, the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA) moved from its location in a church on 10th Street to join AMAC in the same building on Means Street.
Being in the same building led the two Centers this year to create the Centers for Inclusive Design Innovation, which has already received funding for a project.
The Centers want to mark these milestones at an open house Thursday at their offices at 512 Means St., from 4-7 p.m.
Visitors will have the opportunity to tour their space, see demonstrations, such as AMAC’s braille machines used for tactile printing, and their student disability accommodation software.
CATEA will show various posters and demonstrations from current and past research projects. That includes the posters submitted to the TechSAge Design Competition for the GatePal app featured on the College of Design, and the TechSAge ALIGN app, which was mentioned in Atlanta Magazine and nominated for a Groundbreaker Award.
Transforming Accessibility in the College of Design
Although the approaches of the two Centers are different, they both use technology to assist people with disabilities and those aging with limitations.
Focused on helping students with disabilities, AMAC first offered services in 2006 at the University of Georgia. The Center moved to the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2010. Center Director Christopher Lee, along with Noel Gregg and other colleagues at UGA, were the inspiration behind AMAC. Gregg worked with AMAC for a few years and has since retired.
Today AMAC has more than 50 staff members who serve 800 member institutions and hundreds more who use their services on an as-needed basis. Not bad for a Center that started with 14 members serving 100 universities.
During the past 10 years, AMAC faced challenges, “including reducing the high cost of accommodations … and integrating a business model that would leverage existing business partners,” Lee said in a statement.
AMAC overcame these challenges and Lee transformed the Center into “an international research and development organization focused on inclusive design in corporate offices, government organizations and nonprofit environments,” he said.
One of AMAC’s biggest grants is the First in The World Grant from the U.S. Department of Education which funds the research of the Center for Accessible Materials Innovation (CAMI). The multi-million-dollar grant will help the center study the graduation gap between students with disabilities and their peers without.
CATEA started as the Center for Rehabilitation Technology (CRT) in 1980, and became the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access in 1999.
CATEA’s focus today is on resources to help employers make accommodations decisions, promote accessible STEM education, and resources to promote health and wellness among seniors while also serving their accessibility needs.
In the past dozen years, CATEA had three national Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers funded by the federal government’s National Institute on Independent Living, Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).
These are the largest ($4.5-$4.75 million over 5 years) and most prestigious awards made by NIDILRR, and funded CATEA projects: “Workplace Accommodations” (2003-2013), “Wheeled Mobility” (2004-2016), and currently “TechSAge” (2013-2018). Current funding also includes a $2.5 million, 5-year study to demonstrate that universal design is a more effective strategy than ADA-required workplace accommodations to engage workers with disabilities.
According to CATEA Director Jon Sanford, by dollar amount, AMAC and CATEA account for about 70 percent of the outside funding in the College, with CATEA as the second largest research center in the College of Design.
Building Georgia Tech’s Accessibility Legacy
The move to create the Centers for Inclusive Design Innovation (CIDI), gives AMAC and CATEA, the two largest centers in the College, the opportunity to collaborate on a larger level, Sanford said.
“CATEA has expertise in research, particularly related to technology and the environment. AMAC has expertise in training and service provision, particularly related to information technology and assistive technology. These complementary programs can strengthen each other,” he noted.
“For example, the new Assistive Software Knowledgebase project was actually awarded to CIDI, and will use the expertise of both CATEA and AMAC.
“CIDI provides an umbrella to show one face to the outside world without losing the identities and name recognition of either center,” Sanford said.
]]>Three hundred Georgia Tech students will participate as visual or performing artists this year. All Georgia Tech students, regardless of major or year, are welcome to submit. For some, it's a chance to share their artistry with campus, while others hope to win 1 of 7 cash awards, including a People's Choice Award.
The opening of the Art Crawl on February 25 will include live readings and special performances by student arts groups. The Clough Art Crawl is juried by professional artists working in the metro Atlanta area who select the top work in each category, and those attending also vote on their favorite works. The event is free and open to the public, and is held in the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons.
All visual art will remain on display throughout the Clough Commons until March 15, 2016.
This event is sponsored by the Office of the Arts, the Georgia Tech Library, and the Office of the Provost.
For more information visit art.clough.gatech.edu.
]]>Last year, 280 students exhibited their artwork in the Clough Commons. All Georgia Tech students, regardless of major or year, are welcome to submit. For some, it's a chance to share their artistry with campus, while others hope to win 1 of 7 cash awards, including a People's Choice award. Submissions will be accepted until January 29. All media will be considered, including drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, architecture, craft arts, graphic design, code-based art, music, poetry/prose, dance, film, and video.
The opening of the Art Crawl will take place on February 25 from 4 p.m. – 8 p.m. The opening event will include live readings and special performances put on by student arts groups, and open mic opportunities. The Clough Art Crawl is juried by professional artists working in the metro Atlanta area who select the top work in each category, and those attending also vote on their favorite works.
All visual art will remain on display throughout the Clough Commons until March 15, 2016.
This event is sponsored by the Office of the Arts, the Georgia Tech Library, and the Office of the Provost.
For more information or to submit your art, visit art.clough.gatech.edu.
]]>
See the full list of shows at www.arts.gatech.edu. Student ticket prices for Arts@Tech performances are $10. Students can purchase up to two tickets per show at the discounted rate. A valid BuzzCard must be presented. Tickets can be purchased at the Box Office in the Ferst Center.
]]>
Musical Architecture, a musical project by New Orleans Airlift in collaboration with Georgia Tech students, continues on display in the outdoor Amphitheatre next to the Ferst Center for the Arts. The project features a musical house, which is an immersive piece of architecture that performers play like an instrument. Three more free performances will be presented this semester, and following each performance the audience is invited to play the house themselves.
Musical Architecture is sponsored by the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts, School of Music, School of Industrial Design, Center for Music Technology, and College of Architecture.
Upcoming Performances:
Friday, November 21 at 11:45 am
Performance by Georgia Tech Music Technology students
Friday, November 21 at 7 pm
Performance by guest artist Mario Schambon (http://www.marioschambon.com/sound-works.html)
Tuesday, December 2nd at 6:30 pm
Performance by the Georgia Tech Percussion Ensemble
(This performance is followed by the School of Music holiday concert at the Ferst Center at 7:30 pm).
For more information please call 404-894-2787.
]]>New Orleans Airlift is sponsored by the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts, School of Music, School of Industrial Design, Center for Music Technology, and College of Architecture. The project will be located at the Amphitheatre located to the side of the Ferst Center for the Arts and the musical house will be open for anyone to play throughout the semester.
The idea of Musical Architecture was conceived by artists Delaney Martin, Taylor Lee Shepherd, and Swoon of New Orleans Airlift in 2010. Inspired by a decrepit 18th century creole cottage and seeking to imaginatively reuse the cottage’s salvaged materials, they combined music and architecture into an idea for a house that could be played like an instrument. The original project, titled The Music Box, was hugely successful and the concept has continued in other locations around the world where new iterations reflect local music and culture.
New Orleans Airlift served as artists-in-residence at Georgia Tech last spring, and Tech students from the GT Center for Music Technology created a musical architecture project in collaboration with students from industrial design, human-computer interaction, and architecture. New Orleans Airlift has returned to Atlanta this fall, and continued working with Tech students to create the newest Musical Architecture project. It will debut in Atlanta at the Goat Farm Halloween Event on October 31 and then will move to the Amphitheatre located to the side of the Ferst Center where it will remain throughout the semester.
For more information please call 404-894-2787.
]]>2015 Guthman Competition Judges:
To learn more about the competition visit guthman.gatech.edu
To enter your work into the competition please submit your work here.
The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2014. Approximately 20 semi-finalists will be invited to demonstrate, discuss, and perform with their instruments at the competition as they compete for $10,000 in cash prizes. The competition takes place on February 19th - 20th, 2015, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
This marks the first year the Guthman Competition will be extending a special invitation to students. We are excited to provide limited travel support for selected student submissions (student ID required).
]]>
Academic Program Coordinator
Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology
]]>Modeled after the School of Music’s popular undergraduate music technology survey course, students explore topics such as acoustics, psychoacoustics, digital sound, digital signal processing, audio synthesis, spectral analysis, algorithmic composition, and music information retrieval, as well as the deep relationships between art and science, between theory and practice, and between experimental and popular electronic music. The hands-on format introduces students to creating music with the same digital audio workstation software paradigms used in professional studios as well as to writing simple computer programs in the Python programming language to manipulate, transform, and remix music.
No prior experience is required.
The course begins on October 6th, 2014.
For more information, visit https://www.coursera.org/course/musictech.
]]>This year, for the first time, the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts, School of Music, and Center for Music Technology are happy to present the Musical Instrument Student Challenge. As part of this challenge, Georgia Tech students will showcase their novel musical instruments and ideas at a special event preceding the Guthman Competition. Winners of the Student Challenge will be awarded cash and in-kind prizes valued up to $3000 and will compete in the semi-final round of the Guthman Competition, sharing their work with celebrity judges Joe Paradiso, Graham Marsh, and DJ Hurricane, and instrument designers from around the world.
An information session providing more details about the Student Challenge will be held October 15, 11 a.m.-noon at the Couch Building, room 102. Please register for the information session at http://guthman.gatech.edu/student-challenge-information-session-sign.
]]>Director of Communications
College of Architecture
]]>2015 Guthman Competition Judges:
To learn more about the competition visit guthman.gatech.edu
To enter your work into the competition please submit your work here.
The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2014. Approximately 20 semi-finalists will be invited to demonstrate, discuss, and perform with their instruments at the competition as they compete for $10,000 in cash prizes. The competition takes place on February 19th - 20th, 2015, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
This marks the first year the Guthman Competition will be extending a special invitation to students. We are excited to provide limited travel support for selected student submissions (student ID required).
]]>
Academic Program Coordinator
Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology
]]>Tanz Farm offers performances, experiments and shops emphasizing sociability, experience and conversation to establish a 114-year old factory space as a destination for contemporary performance.
Tanz Farm supports intimate encounters between artists and the public offering people longer viewing times of contemporary performance, connecting sensations and meaning through a platform for multi-layered actions, discussions and networking in the field of contemporary art.
For more information on Tanz Farm please see here.
For more information on Chris Howe please see his personal website.
]]>The Ars Electronica festival is one of the landmark international arts and technology consortiums. Based in Linz, Austria, Ars Electronica began in 1979 as an annual exhibition highlighting the emerging patterns of art infiltrating technology. This annual exhibition has blossomed into an internationally renowned festival, awards ceremony, and media research lab.
The Ars Electronica Israel campus exhibit, ll(l) Machine, is an element of the larger Ars Electronica festival with the encompassing theme “Total Recall: The Evolution of Memory”. The exhibit that features Shimi examines how the relationship between automated procedures performed by machines directly relates to real life, and whether or not these technologies arouse a greater concern. Il(l) Machine aims to question the role these technologies play in shaping our identities, both individually and within the larger community.
As the seminal international digital arts festival, it is a true accomplishment to be featured. Shimi displays the high level of research and innovation taking place at Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology.
For more information regarding the Ars Electronica exhibition see here.
The judges for the 2014 Guthman Competition will be:
To learn more about the competition and submit your work, visit guthman.gatech.edu.
The deadline for submissions is November 1st, 2013. Approximately 20 semi-finalists will be invited to demonstrate, discuss, and perform with their instruments at the competition as they compete for $10,000 in cash prizes. The competition takes place on February 20 and 21, 2014, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
]]>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2VLz4raGv8&feature=plcp
]]>
RESPONSIBILITIES: Teach courses in music cognition, digital signal processing, music information retrieval and/or other music technology courses as required. Advise graduate students in collaborative and individual research projects, and theses. Pursue an active research agenda with a primary focus on music information retrieval, music cognition, and/or digital signal processing. A secondary focus in another area of music technology is desirable. Assist with administrative responsibilities with the graduate programs in music technology, the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, and the School of Music
QUALIFICATIONS: Ph.D. or DMA in computer music, music technology, computer science, or electrical engineering is strongly preferred. ABD will receive consideration.
RANK & SALARY: Rank and salary are competitive and commensurate with experience and qualifications.
SCHOOL OF MUSIC: The School of Music combines tradition and technology to create unique and exciting opportunities for students in all academic programs. Undergraduate students can participate in one of three Music Minors and graduate students can apply for the Master of Science and PhD in Music Technology.
GTCMT: The Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology (GTCMT) is an international center for creative and technological research in music, focusing on the development and deployment of innovative musical technologies that transform the ways in which we create and experience music. Our mission is to provide a collaborative framework for committed students, faculty, and researchers to apply their musical, technological, and scientific creativity to the development of innovative artistic and technological artifacts. Our work aims at combining musical, technological, and cognitive research in an effort to create rich and expressive experiences for performers and audiences alike. Areas of interest include composition, performance, mobile music, machine listening, music information retrieval, digital signal processing, robotic musicianship, interactive music manufacturing, networked music, music perception, music theory, multimedia development, and education.
COLLEGE: The College of Architecture at Georgia Tech champions advancements in the arts and the built environment through academic schools in architecture, building construction, city and regional planning, industrial design, and music. A leader in design innovation since 1908, students, faculty, and researchers work across boundaries to advance knowledge of designed environments at all scales, producing new realms of experience and creativity. The College is a cultural center of creativity and progressive thinking, and frequently hosts world-class performances, exhibitions, lectures, and symposiums. Committed to world-class research, the College is home to five interdisciplinary research centers and more than 20 research groups conducting projects that range from creating better simulation models for predicting building efficiency, to new assistive technologies and more effective healthcare environments.
GEORGIA TECH: The Georgia Institute of Technology is one the nation’s top research universities, distinguished by its commitment to improving the human condition through advanced science and technology. Georgia Tech’s campus occupies 330 acres in the heart of the lively, progressive city of Atlanta, where more than 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive a focused, technologically based education.
APPLICATION: Letter of application, curriculum vitae, names, addresses, and telephone numbers of three references are required. Do not send supporting materials at this time. Review of applicants will begin May 1, 2012 and continue until the positions are filled.
SEND MATERIALS TO:
Music Technology Search
School of Music
840 McMillan Street
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0456
MORE INFORMATION:
Please contact Dr. Gil Weinberg, Director, GTCMT
Telephone 404-894-8949 or e-mail gilw@gatech.edu
Georgia Tech is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
]]>The announcement follows the tremendously successful launch of the two-year MS degree in Music Technology in 2007 and the launch of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology in 2008. “The new PhD program already has a strong infrastructure in place offering students a wealth of potential research projects and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration,” said Frank Clark, chair of the Georgia Tech School of Music.
“Traditionally, music technology academicians have focused on technology for experts and high-art,” said Gil Weinberg, director of the Center for Music Technology. “The new PhD program will position Georgia Tech at the forefront of fundamental shifts in the music industry, providing well-rounded doctorate-level graduates for a growing demand in music technology for novices; social and mobile media; education; and accessibility.”
An international center for creative and technological research in music, the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology draws faculty from leading programs across campus, including Human-Computer Interaction, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Design, Digital Media and Mechanical Engineering, underscoring the unique interdisciplinary research environment. The Center’s rigorous research agendas range from acoustics to music therapy; from interactive game design to robotic musicianship. Two new companies already have spun off from the Center: ZOOZ Mobile and Khush. The Center also houses the annual Margaret Guthman New Musical Instrument Competition to discover new modes of musical expression, and Sonic Generator, the contemporary music ensemble-in-residence that combines the faculty in the School of Music with performers from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
“The PhD program will further utilize the compelling power of music as a gateway to deep student-centered learning in the sciences, mathematics, cognitive sciences, engineering and design,” said Clark. “We also look forward to broadening and strengthening partnerships among cultural institutions, in the arts, the entertainment industry and high-tech enterprises around the globe.”
]]>