Kimaya (Kimmy) Rekamwasam, a computational neuroscientist and singer-songwriter who additionally performs electrical bass and guitar, says music has been a central a part of her life ever since she will bear in mind. She grew up in a musical household and performed in bands all through highschool.
“For many of my life, writing and performing music has been the clearest method for me to specific myself,” says Rekamwasam. “I used to be a really shy and anxious youngster and had hassle expressing myself. Over time, composing and performing music turned central to how I communicated and took care of my very own psychological well being.”
Along with gaining precious abilities and expertise, she credit her ardour for music for sparking her curiosity in neuroscience.
“I used to be capable of see firsthand not solely how audiences reply to music, but additionally how a lot worth music has to musicians,” she says. “The shut connection between making music and feeling good first led me to surprise why music has such a strong impact on us, and finally led me to analysis the science behind music.”
Lecamwasam acquired his bachelor’s diploma from Wellesley School in 2021, the place he studied neuroscience, particularly within the areas of techniques and computational neuroscience, in addition to music. In her first semester, she took a composition class, which she says made her extra conscious of the connection between music and emotion. Whereas attending Wellesley, she participated within the MIT Undergraduate Analysis Alternatives Program for 3 years. Working within the laboratory of Emery Brown, the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience, within the Division of Mind and Cognitive Sciences, she targeted totally on classifying the consciousness of anesthetized sufferers and utilizing reinforcement studying to coach brain-computer interfaceable prosthetics.
“I nonetheless have a deep love for music, and whereas I pursued it alongside my neuroscience analysis, I actually needed to discover a method to mix each in graduate college,” says Rekamwasam. Ms. Brown beneficial that she take into account the graduate program on the MIT Media Lab throughout the Media Arts and Sciences Program (MAS). I discovered this to be perfect.
“One of many issues I actually like about the place I’m is that I get to be each an artist and a scientist,” Rekamwasam says. “That was necessary to me when selecting a graduate program. I needed to see if I might do actually rigorous, examined, necessary work, but additionally do some cool, inventive exploration and be capable of actually put the analysis I used to be doing into observe in numerous methods.”
Discover the bodily, psychological and emotional results of music
Knowledgeable by years of undergraduate neuroscience analysis and a ardour for music, Lecamwasam targeted his graduate research on harnessing the emotional energy of music right into a scalable, non-pharmacological psychological well being instrument. Her grasp’s thesis targeted on pharmacology, inspecting how music positively influences the physiology and psychology of individuals with nervousness problems.
The overarching theme of Lecamwasam’s analysis is exploring the assorted bodily, psychological, and emotional impacts of music and emotional computing. I’m at the moment within the third 12 months of my doctoral program. future opera She is at the moment investigating the affect of large-scale reside music and live performance experiences on the psychological well being and well-being of each viewers members and performers. She additionally works to clinically validate music listening, composition, and efficiency as well being interventions together with psychotherapeutic and pharmaceutical interventions.
Her current analysis, in collaboration with Professor Anna Huang’s Human-AI Resonance Lab, evaluates the emotional resonance of AI-generated music in comparison with human-composed music. The goal is to establish extra moral makes use of for the manufacturing and suggestion of emotionally delicate music that preserves human creativity and company and may also be used as a well being intervention. She co-led a wellness and music workshop on the Wellbeing Summit in Bilbao, Spain, and offered work on the 2023 CHI Convention on Human Elements in Computing Techniques in Hamburg, Germany, and the 2024 Audio Largely Convention in Milan, Italy.
Lecamwasam has labored with nationwide and worldwide organizations to translate her analysis into real-world functions. She has collaborated with Carnegie Corridor’s Weill Institute of Music and Wellbeing Concert events and is at the moment collaborating with the North Shore Lullaby Mission in Massachusetts, an outgrowth of Carnegie Corridor’s Lullaby Mission, and analysis evaluating the affect of lullaby composition on perinatal well being. Her principal worldwide collaboration is with an organization known as Myndstream, on a mission that compares the emotional resonance of AI-generated music to human-composed music, with potential scientific and real-world functions. She can be working with PixMob and Empatica (a spin-off of the MIT Media Lab) on a mission centered round assessing the affect of interactive lighting and large-scale reside music experiences on emotional resonance in stadium and enviornment settings.
Constructing a group
“Kimmy combines a deep love and complex data of music with scientific curiosity and rigor in a method that finest represents the spirit of Media Lab/MAS,” mentioned Professor Todd Machover, Rekamwasam Analysis Advisor, Media Lab Dean, and Director of the Opera of the Future Group. “She has lengthy believed that music is likely one of the strongest and efficient methods to create private interventions to stabilize psychological misery and promote empathy and connection. That very same need to determine wholesome, protected, and sustainable environments for work and play has led Kimmy to turn into one of the crucial efficient and devoted group builders within the lab.”
Lecamwasam has been taking part in MAS’s SOS (College students Providing Assist) program for a number of years. This program assists college students with numerous life experiences and backgrounds within the technique of making use of to the Media Arts and Sciences program. She’s going to quickly turn into the primary MAS Peer Mentor as a part of a brand new initiative. By way of this initiative, we are going to set up and coordinate a program that features a “buddy system” that pairs incoming grasp’s college students with doctoral college students to assist them transition to graduate college life at MIT. She can be a part of the Studcom Media Lab. Studcom is a student-run group that promotes, promotes, and creates experiences designed to convey the group collectively.
“I believe all the things I’ve executed up to now has been so supported by the buddies I’ve made throughout the lab, throughout the division, and even throughout the division,” Rekamwasam says. “I believe everybody’s actually excited in regards to the work they’re doing and supporting one another. That makes me need to do that work and be part of this group, even when issues are powerful and troublesome.”
