of MIT Music Technology and Computing (MTC) Graduate Program — Launched in fall 2024 in collaboration with Music and Dramatic Arts Department in Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS), and Faculty of Engineering (SoE) — The primary MIT Music Know-how Analysis Showcase was held on Might thirteenth. The occasion, held standing room solely within the Thomas Tull Live performance Corridor within the Edward and Joyce Linde Music Constructing, featured various and fascinating analysis shows and musical performances.
The celebration included MTC’s first 5 inductees, all of whom had been beforehand MIT undergraduates, in addition to a number of doctoral college students and college. Every scholar offered an inspiring instance of creative engineering that displays MIT’s broader and burgeoning music know-how scene.
The 90-minute occasion showcased a variety of analysis tasks, together with a real-time visualization of what an AI collaborative improvisational agent is making an attempt to play on a piano. A sound artwork set up primarily based on noisy community communications. A hip-hop dance circle the place music is born from dance. It then makes use of electroencephalogram (EEG) indicators to establish the musical songs that our brains are imagining.
“A brand new area for exploration and perception”
The showcase, a mixture of technical shows and reside performances, started with remarks from SHASS Dean and Professor of Philosophy Agustín Rayo, SOE Dean and Professor of Chemical Engineering Paula Hammond, and MTC Director and Professor of Music Apply Eran Egozi.
“The aim of this program is easy: for MIT to steer the world within the concept and utility of music know-how,” Rayo mentioned, including, “It is not nearly utilizing know-how to make music. It is also about collaborating throughout disciplines to assist higher form the way forward for expression in an AI-driven world, reflecting the most effective of MIT.”
Rayo famous that this graduate program is made potential partially by the opening in 2025 of the Edward and Joyce Linde Music Constructing, which can characteristic new school rooms, studios, rehearsal area, and a devoted music know-how lab. He additionally praised the MIT Schwarzman School of Computing for its assist of graduate packages.
Professor Hammond mentioned: “As everybody on this room already is aware of, music and engineering have widespread roots. Each depend on mathematical precision, and are knowledgeable by outlined constructions, rhythms and frequencies. Each create one thing fully new. “It requires arduous work and technical know-how mixed with inspiration and creativeness. Given these similarities, it’s no shock that so many college, college students, and workers throughout MIT are additionally achieved musicians and artists.”
She continued, “Our music program is a gem. Solely at MIT can we deliver collectively prime engineers and prime musicians to create distinctive collaborative alternatives. Right here, we’ve introduced collectively college and college students with sturdy sympathies for each music and engineering to type new areas for exploration and perception. This can be a highly effective instance of the tradition of collaboration that characterizes the Institute.”
Calling the occasion “a harmonious hybrid of a live performance and a symposium,” Egozy recalled, “It is a little bit mind-boggling to see what our college students achieved in only one quick, fast-paced yr. We initially debated the trade-off between a one-year grasp’s program and a two-year grasp’s program, however I feel this group actually confirmed us that we are able to make nice strides in our studying and analysis capabilities in a concentrated time period.”
Exhibition of pupil analysis
A type of college students is Claire Southard ’25, SM’26, who developed a machine studying mannequin used to establish musical notes hidden in brainwave indicators.
“Every year, musicians are identified with motion problems akin to Parkinson’s illness or dystonia, or expertise accidents that forestall them from controlling their palms and our bodies in the way in which essential to play an instrument. Because of this, far too many musicians are pressured to cease doing what they love. My analysis goals to assist such musicians by immediately translating the music they’re making an attempt to play from their mind exercise, bypassing the necessity for motor management altogether. I am exploring one technique to assist individuals play once more. To do that, I am coaching a machine studying mannequin to foretell the music individuals are imagining from mind exercise measured utilizing mind waves, and I hope that most of the predicted songs will assist deliver a extra accessible way forward for music efficiency nearer to actuality by designing programs that enable musicians to create music no matter their bodily skills.”
Earlier than attending MTC, Southard initially had no concept of the breadth, scope, and scale of what this system may supply to additional pursue and notice her pursuits. “The MIT Music Know-how and Computing Graduate Program taught me so much in regards to the potentialities on the intersection of STEM and the humanities,” she says. “Once I first began this system, I actually did not actually perceive what ‘music know-how’ was. By means of my courses, analysis, and conversations with college, visitor audio system, and colleagues, I’ve realized that this area is way broader and extra fascinating than I had beforehand imagined. ”
She continued, “Having a background in neuroscience and laptop science, a lot of my undergraduate tasks had been carried out solely on units. Nevertheless, this program uncovered me to extra hands-on expertise, from making audio recordings to constructing digital musical devices from scratch.”
Mariano Salcedo ’25, SM ’26, one other MTC alumnus and pupil speaker on the 2026 SHASS Superior Diploma Ceremony, offered a customized internet utility that enables anybody to create distinctive emergent visuals pushed by real-time streaming music. To realize this impact, Salcedo constructed an algorithm that exploits the complicated visible conduct of self-organizing programs as a method of making aesthetic synergy.
In his speech on the senior diploma ceremony, Salcedo expressed his gratitude and admiration for the passionate individuals he met not solely at MTC however all through MIT. Within the correct mode of compassion, he opined empathetically. “I feel this name from us is to paved the way in know-how that facilities people and humanity. Meaning not simply asking what we are able to construct, but additionally asking who it impacts, who it doesn’t affect, and who it advantages.”
Music know-how thrives at MIT
Anna Huang SM ’08, affiliate professor at MTA and Division of Electrical Engineering and Pc Science (EECS, by way of SCC); MIT Media LabOne of many world’s main researchers in human-AI collaborative music manufacturing, she echoed the emotions of each Sassard and Salcedo via her keynote tackle, “In Search of Resonance in Human-AI Interplay.” Her speech, a robust and intimate dialog, emphasised the significance of centering human musicians in all work carried out round AI, whereas additionally striving to incorporate all of the world’s music in AI discussions at each alternative.
With many members of the family within the viewers, Juan recalled: “I’ve the privilege of being a part of each MIT Music and EECS, interdisciplinary shared areas. What does it imply to construct music know-how on this context? We’re surrounded by very gifted musicians, so we’ve this collaborative design method. We work with these musicians, we go into the studio, we attempt issues out each week, and the know-how grows with the inventive course of. We’re continually pushing each of these issues ahead. That is the place I really feel most comfy.”
Huang additionally defined how this follow will put together him for a brand new course in music know-how research that he’ll co-teach within the fall with not too long ago appointed theater arts professor Grisha Coleman. Class 21M.369/569 (Tuning Notes: Inventive Practices in Motion, Sound, and AI) proposes that the examine of sound and motion practices can inform how we construct and conceive computational programs, with a selected give attention to their relationship to AI. We introduce college students to a variety of musical practices in improvisation and somatics via movement seize know-how, crucial interplay design, generative modeling, and algorithms for interpretation and studying via human suggestions.
All issues thought of, the longer term is brilliant for the MIT Music Know-how and Computing graduate program. In accordance with Egozi, MTC has admitted 10 grasp’s college students for the 2026-27 tutorial yr out of greater than 100 candidates. Not like this yr’s class, subsequent yr’s college students will embody current graduates of the MIT college in addition to newcomers to campus.
“Increasing our attain to alumni from different faculties and establishments will deliver a unprecedented richness of views and experiences to this program. Moreover, all three joint MTA and EECS college members, together with Mark Lau, Paris Smaragdis SM ’97, Ph.D. ’01, and Huang, are inviting new music know-how doctoral college students to hitch their labs via EECS,” Egozi says.
Embodying that mission, MTC has confirmed to be a vibrant, interdisciplinary program that draws all kinds of scholars from a variety of backgrounds and with quite a lot of profession objectives.
“Regardless of our variety, all of our college students have a core commonality: not solely a shared love of music, but additionally a deep need to amplify that zeal via know-how in a really heartwarming and humane approach,” says Egozy.
Undertaking record
Rachel Loh, Quanta Fellow in Music Know-how and Computing: “Visualizing the inner state of musical fashions for human-AI reside improvisation.”
Noble Harasha, Quanta Fellow, Music Know-how and Computing: “Modeling subjectivity and collective sensory notion as noisy analog communication in feedback-driven networks”
Z Chen, Quanta Fellow in Music Know-how and Computing: “Generative music as a catalyst for social choreography”
Nithya Shikarpur: “Transferring Drones: Dwell Improvisation within the Context of Hindustani Music Utilizing Human Voices, Generative Fashions, and Loops”
Mariano Salcedo, Alex Rigopoulos (1992) Fellows in Music Know-how and Computation: “Neural Mobile Automaton for Interactive Music Visualization”
Claire Southard, John Piscitello Music Know-how and Computation Fellow: “Neural decoding of imagined music”
Stephen Brade, Suwan Kim, Valerie Chen: “Whale, cello (there?): Musical dialogue between a cello and a real-time diffusion mannequin skilled on whale songs.”
