Catalyst Project: Computational Research On Music and Audio

Lincoln University, Lincoln University

Investigators

Abstract

Catalyst Projects provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities to work towards establishing research capacity of faculty to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics undergraduate education and research. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, improve research and teaching at the institution, and involve undergraduate students in research experiences. This project at Lincoln University in Missouri will investigate aspects and applications of computational audio signal processing, drawing from disciplines such as computer science, engineering, mathematics, and music, and will include undergraduate students in the research activities. Results from this work could have potential applications in areas such as improving hearing aids in noisy environments or automatic transcription of musical recordings. The project at Lincoln University proposes to create an interdisciplinary research group in computational research on music and audio that will involve undergraduate students. Specific research aims are the detection of onsets and offsets in musical audio; sound source separation based on binary masking of time-frequency elements; and development of mathematical methods to quantify and decompose sound mixtures and components of sounds mixtures. An advisory committee has been established to guide the project, as well as facilitate the establishment of research collaborations.