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Friday, September 4th, 2015
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The sound of (new) music A new symphony that incorporates the sounds of the city it was composed for, and a concert where the musicians move around and use technologically enhanced instruments analyzing their performances — these are just two highlights of Tod Machover’s term as composer-in-residence for this year’s prestigious Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, including two world premieres later this month.
Machover, the Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Interactive Media Design at the MIT Media Lab, has written three new pieces in all — one already debuted, in August — and an updated performance of one of his classic works, “Hyperstring Trilogy,” originally written in part for the famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Some of the works use “hyperinstruments,” a concept that Machover introduced in the 1980s — instruments that are technologically enhanced to provide, as he has put it, “extra power and finesse” for performers, and to record data about their use. Meanwhile, Machover’s “Symphony for Lucerne,” debuting Sept. 5, incorporates another innovation, drawing upon the sounds of Lucerne, Switzerland, itself, many of them submitted for consideration by local residents via Web and mobile apps developed in Machover’s research group at the MIT Media Lab.
“It’s a festival where there’s both an incredibly high musical level, and there’s also a real devotion to experimentation and devotion to new music,” says Machover, a 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his opera “Death and the Powers.” Here is a look at the four Machover works being performed at the festival.
“Re-Structures”
This new Machover composition for two pianos and electronics debuted on Aug. 23. It is a tribute to Pierre Boulez, the prominent French composer, now 90, who Machover has known for decades; this year’s Lucerne Festival is honoring Boulez.
Boulez helped extend the use of serial techniques in composing, a way of structuring works; Machover’s piece, whose title refers to to Boulez’s 1951 and 1962 works “Structures I” and “Structures II,” explores the tensions of creativity.
“I think one of the major tensions for creators in general and certainly for Boulez, more than anyone, is the relationship between what you do consciously and what you do intuitively,” Machover observes. “We all have a tug of war. I think with Boulez’s work, there’s an enormous passion and wildness under the surface he always tried to control, and so I try to bring that out in my piece.”
“Hyperstring Trilogy”
On Aug. 29, the Lucerne Festival Academy and soloists performed Machover’s 1991 “Hyperstring Trilogy,” the only performance of his work at the festival not based on a new composition. The original performance of one of the trilogy’s sections (titled “Begin Again Again …”) featured an augmented cello built for Ma that could measure factors such as string contact, hand position, and bow movement.
“It was the first physical hyperinstrument,” Machover says, adding that as a trained cellist himself, he wanted to be able to record “the slightest subtlety of the way you stop the string or move you finger on it. Everything matters. I wanted to measure those things so that the subtle changes that someone as fantastic as Yo-Yo does while playing would be measured, analyzed, and reflected.”
To bring “Hyperstring Trilogy” back to Lucerne in 2015, a group effort was needed, Machover says. Rebecca Kleinberger, a PhD student in Machover’s research group, and Wellesley College undergraduate Galen Chuang, participating through MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, reconstructed the music and systems used in past performances, while 2015 MIT alumnus Kevin King helped redevelop the technology being used this year to control sensing and interaction. (“Remarkable,” Machover says of the student efforts.)
“It’s one of my pieces I feel most strongly about,” adds Machover, who loosely based the composition on the emotional and psychological arc of Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”
“A Symphony for Lucerne”
A few years ago, Machover tried a new project: a symphony for the city of Toronto, about Toronto, incorporating textures based on the sounds of Toronto itself. He invited Torontonians to collaborate with him to create “A Toronto Symphony” via forums allowing them to contribute sounds and impressions that give meaning to their urban experiences. It worked; Machover has subsequently written symphonies for Edinburgh, Scotland, and Perth, Australia.
Now Machover has written “A Symphony for Lucerne,” the fourth in the series. “From the beginning my idea was to make a portrait of a city through music,” Machover says. Lucerne, he says “is a beautiful place, a kind of idyllic place. But there is also a lot of creativity and vitality, including strange music and sounds coming out of this place that I hadn’t expected.” (The piece also contains a wry reference to Swiss cows.)
Machover solicited input by reaching out to people in workshops and other forums over the last year. “This feels like the right combination between my personal work as a composer and the community,” he says.
A variety of MIT students, staff, and alumni also helped in the collaboration, from processing audio material collected in Lucerne to designing apps that let people contribute sounds, and more. They include Media Lab graduate students Akito Van Troyer, Charles Holbrow, and Sarah Platte; alumna Chantine Akiyama; junior Eric Fegan; and MIT Media Lab research specialist David Nunez. Simone Osvey, producer of special projects at the Media Lab, coordinated, managed, and contributed to “A Symphony for Lucerne” and Machover’s numerous engagements at the Lucerne Festival.
“Fensadense”
The last of Machover’s three world premieres at the Lucerne festival, debuting Sept. 12, “Fensadense” is a highly experimental concert written for 10 players, using interactive hyperinstruments and giving the performers freedom to move around on (and off) stage while they produce data about how they are playing.
“I’m really excited about it, but it’s one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done,” Machover says.
“Fensadense” is a roughly 30-minute piece, which requires the performers to memorize their parts — since they are in motion — and necessitates virtuoso-level musicians. The piece has five stringed instruments, as well as clarinet, bass clarinet, tuba, piano plus electric keyboard, and percussion.
“I’ve been working on doing something really crazy and uncompromising with this new technology, where the musicians are capable of organizing themselves,” Machover says. Media Lab alumnus Peter Torpey and MIT junior Garrett Parish designed the hyperinstrument systems, along with PhD student Ben Bloomberg, whose “Hyperproduction” system runs all of Machover’s Lucerne projects. Bloomberg leads the project development and technical coordination, is the sound designer for the shows, and mixes all the performances.
“It’s really been challenging, but it’s been inspiring,” says Machover, noting that rehearsals for the piece and tests for the instruments are ongoing — and adding that the Lucerne festival is one of the few events for which he could have created such varying works.
“Each of the projects has a different character, and a different reason for existing,” Machover says. | | 1:00p |
CSAIL joins with Toyota on $25 million research center for autonomous cars The World Health Organization estimates that 3,400 people die each day from traffic-related accidents. Could autonomous cars be part of the solution?
Today MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) announced a new $25 million research center funded by Toyota to further the development of autonomous vehicle technologies, with the goal of reducing traffic casualties and potentially even developing a vehicle incapable of getting into an accident.
Announced at a press conference in California, the Toyota-CSAIL Joint Research Center will be part of a combined $50 million that Toyota has committed to dual centers at MIT and Stanford University to advance the state of autonomous systems.
Led by CSAIL director Daniela Rus, the new center will focus on developing advanced decision-making algorithms and systems that allow vehicles to perceive and navigate their surroundings safely, without human input.
“We are excited to mark the start of our partnership with Toyota, and hopefully the beginning of the end for traffic fatalities,” says Rus, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “Together we have developed some research directions that have the potential to be game-changers in the field, and we look forward to working closely with Toyota and Stanford to make them real.”
Toyota’s larger academic collaboration with MIT and Stanford will be coordinated by Gill Pratt PhD ’89, a former MIT professor who most recently served as program director at the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA)’s Defense Sciences Office.
The Toyota-CSAIL Joint Research Center
Traditionally, companies have focused on developing systems in which either the human driver must pay attention and be ready to take control, or one in which an automated system is always in control of the vehicle.
CSAIL researchers plan to start by exploring a new alternative approach, in which the human driver pays attention at all times with an autonomous system that is there to jump in to save the driver in the event of an unavoidable accident. This type of system could not only improve safety by reducing the number of accidents, but could also enhance the overall driving experience, Rus explains. She envisions creating a system that could prevent collisions and also provide drivers with assistance navigating tricky situations; support a tired driver by watching for unexpected dangers and diversions; and even offer helpful tips such as letting the driver know she is out of milk at home and planning a new route home that allows the driver to swing by the grocery store.
“A highly advanced system like this would be a major advance in the field of autonomy and an important step on the way to creating a safer world for drivers,” Rus says.
On the technical front, CSAIL’s new center will focus on pressing challenges in autonomy, from computer vision and perception to planning and control to decision-making.
Taking on the “moonshot” challenges
Research at the new center will be aimed at improving vehicular transportation by advancing the science of autonomous systems. Researchers will tackle challenges integral to the development of advanced automated vehicle systems, including building new tools for collecting and analyzing navigation data with the goal of learning from human driving; creating perception and decision-making systems for safe navigation; developing predictive models that can anticipate the behavior of humans, vehicles, and the larger environment; inventing state-of-the-art tools to handle congestion and high-speed driving in challenging situations including adverse weather; improving machine-vision algorithms used to detect and classify objects; and creating more intelligent user interfaces.
Among the CSAIL principal investigators involved will be John Leonard, the Samuel C. Collins Professor in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, who has pioneered algorithms that allow robots to navigate unknown environments, and Russ Tedrake, an associate professor of computer science and engineering, who oversaw MIT’s DARPA Robotics Challenge team. The researchers say that they are eager to work on solutions that could completely transform the way that humans get around.
“Solving these challenges will require combining our knowledge of data-driven and model-based approaches to decision making and perception,” Rus says. “Developing a vehicle that’s incapable of having an accident is an ambitious goal, but at CSAIL we’ve always focused on the moonshots.” | | 3:30p |
MIT hosts discussion on scaling STEM education New computer programs designed to teach children multiplication and division, interactive demonstrations of electricity and magnetism, and molecular models used to teach key biology concepts were all on display Thursday afternoon at the MIT Media Lab during an event examining science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.
The event, dubbed “Scaling STEM” and hosted by MIT President L. Rafael Reif and U.S. Congressman Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), focused on how to use technology to improve access to quality STEM education for all students. The afternoon featured demonstrations of new learning tools and outreach efforts, presentations by leading education experts, and a panel discussion.
In his opening remarks, Reif shared why improving access to STEM education is so important to him. He recalled how, as a young student of limited means, studying textbooks developed by MIT faculty members inspired him to pursue a career as an engineer. Reif knew intimately, he said, that education can transform a young person’s life, “because it certainly transformed mine.”
Sanjay Sarma, dean of digital learning at MIT, related how, during the process of compiling the Institute-wide Task Force report on the future of MIT education, he and his colleagues realized that MIT has a mission to “make learning and education available … to all levels.” The key to providing this sort of access, he explained, is making education scalable, adaptable, and attainable to a wide variety of people around the world.
Scaling STEM
Discussion during the event focused on how educators could not only improve STEM pedagogy, but also how they might reach the many children around the world who lack access to quality STEM education.
Kennedy described increasing opportunities for students to engage with science and engineering at a young age, but said more needed to be done and applauded MIT’s efforts to reach out to underserved populations. “This is an area where MIT is leading the way,” Kennedy said.
Jeffrey Leiden, CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, emphasized the importance of extending the reach of STEM education to attract more women and minorities to related fields. He noted that science and technology were revolutionizing the way we live our lives, and that the only way for this progress to continue, is to “train the next generation of leaders.”
One example could be found in the work of Faria Kader, a high school senior who traveled to her native Bangladesh this summer to teach children about science. Using learning modules and curriculum developed by the MIT Edgerton Center, Kader provided 150 Bangladeshi students with new projects and learning opportunities. Edward Moriarty, an Edgerton Center instructor, added that Kader’s work, and the learning modules developed by the Edgerton Center, are not solely focused on STEM: Another purpose behind this outreach work is to get children “encouraged and wanting to learn.”
Role models
A reoccurring theme during the event was the importance of role models in inspiring young students. Sangeeta Bhatia, the John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, spoke about how role models could be used to encourage more women and minorities to pursue careers in STEM fields. She cited a study conducted by researchers at MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) that demonstrated how female role models in politics have helped boost the aspirations and educational achievement of young women. The power of digital technology, she added, should be used to “increase the visibility of role models.”
In her presentation, Angela Belcher, the W.M. Keck Professor of Energy at MIT, discussed the importance of sharing her passion for science with students of all ages, even those too young to enter Kindergarten. While speaking about how the best part of her job at MIT is teaching, Belcher noted that freshmen are one of her favorite groups of students to work with due to their excitement, passion, and optimism. She highlighted her desire to, “translate the freshmen year at MIT to [students in the] first and second grade.” Belcher does this, she added, by giving presentations on chemical reactions, semiconductors, batteries, and solar cells to elementary school students in an effort to interest them in STEM. No child is too young “to start learning about chemical reactions,” she emphasized.
Empowering students
John Gabrieli, the Grover Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT stressed that providing students of all ages with equal access to quality education is a daunting, but not impossible, challenge. In his view, neuroscience, technology, and personalized education should be used to provide the best educational experience for every student. Gabrieli posited that using new techniques, such as those that can identify conditions like dyslexia at a very early age, could help educators immensely in identifying children who might benefit from additional support.
Learning can not only be assisted through applying new research findings, but also through teaching with new media, explained Eric Klopfer, a professor of urban studies and planning at MIT and director of the Education Arcade. Klopfer described how video games can be used to educate and inspire students, and can be leveraged as teaching tools in the classroom. As examples, Klopfer highlighted several games developed at the Education Arcade, including Radix, a massive multiplayer online game in which players use math and science to make the world a better place.
Similarly, Bhatia discussed how media such as games and art could be used to teach difficult scientific concepts. She highlighted one project in which a member of her research group teamed up with an artist to create images of cells. Bhatia explained that the goal behind this work was to see if they could create, “virtual images that students can interact with.”
A “human endeavor”
The event concluded with a panel discussion moderated by Mitchel Resnick, the LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research and head of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. The panel discussion — which featured Dale Allen, vice president for community engagement at Quinsigamond Community College; Karen Bomba, chief executive officer of Morpho Detection; Chris Dede, the Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Paul Muller, a physics and engineering teacher at the John D. O’Bryant School of Math and Science; and Brian White, associate professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts at Boston — centered around how to retain student interest in STEM fields, particularly among populations that are currently underrepresented in STEM.
Bomba noted the success of a program at her company in which young students spend a day with an engineer. One of the high school students who shadowed an engineer ended up interning at the company during college and is now employed there.
Resnick emphasized that the social side of learning plays a critical role in successfully scaling educational programs, noting that the success of the Scratch programming language is due, in part, to the large community that has formed around the tool. He also emphasized the need for further research and discussion about how to scale educational programs and technologies successfully. “As much as we have learned about scaling technology, education and learning is a very human endeavor,” Resnick noted. |
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