[ 29. Januar 2012 ]

BEWERBUNG – PhD studentships at Queen Mary University of London

From: Elaine Chew
Subject: DEADLINE 31 Jan 2012 for digital music PhD studentships at
Queen Mary University of London
Date: 2012 January 27 12:39:25 PM EST

Quick reminder: DEADLINE for C4DM PhD studentships is next Tuesday, 31
Jan 2012.

Funded PhD studentships at the Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary
University of London
(details also here)

NB: Studentships marked with an asterisk (*) have UK residency
requirements.

Mathematical Models for Musical Prosodic Gestures
Supervisor: Prof. Elaine Chew (Centre for Digital Music)
Co-supervisor: Dr. Oscar Bandtlow (School of Mathematical Sciences)
Application deadline: 31st January 2012
In music performance studies, prosody is the musician-specific timing,
stress, and sometimes intonation added when interpreting a notated
score. Mid- to high-level music prosodic gestures, for example tempo
trajectories, often invoke parallels in the physical world, such as a
damped oscillator. This project seeks to identify and mathematically
model such gestures. The mathematical descriptors will form the basis
for a vocabulary of prosodic gestures for music.

Ensemble Interaction Over Distance
Supervisor: Prof. Elaine Chew (Centre for Digital Music)
Co-supervisor: Prof. Patrick Healey (Interaction Media and
Communication)
Application deadline: 31st January 2012
When a small group of musicians negotiate in performance (i.e. real-
time) the shaping and execution of a collective interpretation, the
communication is non-verbal; some of the cues can be embedded in the
musical prosody, and some demonstrated through gestures. This project
aims to capture, analyze, quantify, and model the cues necessary for
effective and engaging ensemble performance, by studying both co-
located as well as distributed (over the Internet) ensembles.

Adaptive, personalised digital musical instruments
Supervisor: Dr. Andrew McPherson (Centre for Digital Music)
Co-supervisor: Prof. Elaine Chew (Centre for Digital Music)
Application deadline: 31st January 2012
A performer can take decades to learn a musical instrument. This
studentship will focus on creating instruments that learn the
capabilities and artistic preferences of the individual performer,
with a particular focus on the relationship between physical gesture
and sound production. The successful candidate will develop
intelligent gesture-sound mapping strategies, which dynamically update
based on feedback from the performer. User studies with professional
and amateur musicians will be integral to all stages of the project,
and the successful candidate will take a leading role in designing and
conducting these studies. The project aims to make performance more
accessible to beginning musicians while enabling new modes of
expression for experts.

Probabilistic Modelling of Temporal Expectations in Music
Supervisor: Dr. Marcus Pearce (Centre for Digital Music)
Co-supervisor: Dr. Matthew Purver (Interaction Media and Communication)
Application deadline: 31st January 2012
The project’s goal is to construct and evaluate computational models
of human temporal expectation. It involves developing probabilistic
models of temporal prediction, taking representational account of
rhythm and metre. The models and parameters are optimised to maximise
prediction performance and compared to human temporal expectations in
empirical studies of listeners.

Intelligent Interfaces for Accelerating Intermediate Piano Learning (*)
Supervisor: Prof. Elaine Chew (Centre for Digital Music)
Sponsoring Company: Yamaha R&D Centre London
Application deadline: 31st January 2012
Ubiquitous access to digital music, and the hours of practice required
to master new pieces, has led to a decline in amateur instrument
playing. Cognisance of music structure can facilitate planning and
sequence production, and enhance music making pleasure. Machine
intelligence can help diagnose areas of difficulty and offer targeted
constructive assistance. The studentship will propose/evaluate score-
based visualisations of music structure and gestures that accelerate
intermediate piano piece mastery for young and adult learners.
Candidates should be proficient at programming, experienced with user
interface design, have some background in statistics, and possess at
least amateur-level piano playing ability.

Semantic Audio: bringing audio signal analysis together with future
internet technologies (*)
Supervisor: Prof. Mark Sandler (Centre for Digital Music)
Sponsoring Company: Focusrite/Novation
Application deadline: 31st January 2012
The project is concerned with analysis of musical content where it is
created (typically in studios), thus affording much cleaner computer
representation of musicological information in the music that can then
be used both to enhance consumer experiences and recording studio
practices. We base the representation on RDF and ontologies, which are
the technologies that underpin Open Data, Semantic Web and the
Internet of Things. We have collaborated with organisations such as
BBC, MusicBrainz and the British Library in developing these principles.

Content (e.g. music, film, tv) recommendation and discovery is
reaching a level of maturity (for example, last.fm and Genius). But
today, these content descriptions and semantics are derived from the
finished product (e.g. CD, MP3, DVD). The research question explored
in this PhD relies on performing the audio signal content analysis at
the point of content creation. By using ontologies and RDF (Resource
Description Framework – a superior version of XML), many new user
modalities are enabled. For example, new and complex user queries/
searches of the form, “find songs in A minor, with lead and rhythm
guitars, less than 2m30secs, and a rhythm that modulates between 90
and 120 beats per minute”. Not only can content semantics enhance the
listener/consumer experience, they also enhance the workflow in the
recording studio. This is where Focusrite’s interest lies, and
especially integration with OSC.

In addition, there are 10(*)+1 or 2 funded studentships through the
Media and Arts Technology doctoral training centre. Limited funding
may be available for other PhD research at the Centre for Digital Music.

Elaine Chew
Professor of Digital Media
Queen Mary, University of London
School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science
Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 79 2047 8848 (mobile) +44 20 7882 5813 (landline)
E-mail: eniale@eecs.qmul.ac.uk
Web: http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~eniale

Funded PhD Studentships at C4DM http://bit.ly/y8ADGf ** Deadline 31
Jan 2012 **
PhD in Media and Arts Technology http://bit.ly/cutC9Y ** Deadline 31
Jan 2012 **
MSc in Digital Music Processing http://bit.ly/zb21lm
MSc in Digital Signal Processing http://bit.ly/zdZ8cP
BEng / MEng in Audio Systems Engineering http://bit.ly/zL1TDS

Ends of Audience Wkshp 30-31 May http://bit.ly/zHYDdj ** Deadline 30
Jan 2012 **
CMMR 2012 Conference 19-22 Jun http://bit.ly/xJdUIa ** Deadline 1
Feb 2012 **

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