Highlights/Upcoming events

Music, Computing, and Health: A roadmap for the current and future roles of music technology for health care and well-being

It brings me so much joy to announce that our article on "Music, Computing, and Health: A Roadmap for the Current and Future Roles of Music Technology for Health Care and Well-Being" has been published, and is now available online (open-access) from Music & Science. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2059204321997709

New paper published in Frontiers in Psychology on 'Music Therapy During COVID-19'!

My colleagues Katrien Foubert, Siddarth Sridhar, and I have published a paper entitled "Music Therapy During COVID-19: Changes to the Practice, Use of Technology, and What to Carry Forward in the Future." It's freely available (open access) through Frontiers in Psychology, and may be found here.

SEADOM talk on Music and Health - presentation recording now available!

I am honored to be one of two speakers talking at the SEADOM (Southeast Asia Directors of Music) 2021 conference, titled "Music and well-being: Perspectives from Musician Practitioners, Music Therapy, and Music Medicine." My talk will focus on two recent projects; the first focuses on a survey study of the recent experiences of music therapists around the world, and their use of technology, during COVID-19. The second project revolves around a music-based Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system being developed for emotion regulation in listeners.

Large-scale, 4-year Brain Computer Interface project funded!

It is with great joy that I can finally announce (after an extended grant review process) that our project to create a Brain Computer Interface system for the holistic treatment of neurological disorders has been funded! The project is entitled 'Next-Generation Brain-Computer-Brain Platform – A Holistic Solution for the Restoration & Enhancement of Brain Functions (NOURISH)', and will incorporate emotive music and Virtual Reality (and more!) into a powerful, unified BCI system.

New module approved for next term!

I'll be teaching a new module at NUS next term on 'The Psychology of Music Performance'! Really looking forward into diving into this material with some great students at the YST Conservatory of Music. Here's the module description: The module is tailored for musicians, presenting findings from the Psychology of Music and Performance Science that can be used to enhance one’s practice and performance of music. Topics include efficient practicing, learning and memory, mental rehearsal strategies, performance anxiety, and more.

New paper out on 'nnAudio' - congrats to my PhD student Raven Cheuk!

So proud of Raven for driving forward this excellent work. Our paper is entitled "nnAudio: An on-the-Fly GPU Audio to Spectrogram Conversion Toolbox Using 1D Convolutional Neural Network" (authors: Kin Wai Raven Cheuk, Hans Anderson, Kat Agres, and Dorien Herremans). It's open access (free to read!) and published at IEEE Access, available here: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9174990?source=authoralert

New teaching grant for project on Psychology and Music Performance

I'm extremely grateful to have been awarded a Teaching Enhancement Grant (TEG) from the Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL). My project is entitled "Engaging deeply with Cognitive Science in a Conservatory of Music: Using student-centred, project-based learning to improve learning outcomes and performance practice in music students."

SL paper accepted for publication in the journal of 'Psychology and Aging'

I'm very happy to report that our paper entitled 'Age-dependent statistical learning trajectories reveal differences in information weighting' has been accepted for publication in Psychology and Aging. The preprint of this paper, by Steffen Herff, Shanshan Zhen, Rongjun Yu, and myself, is available on PsyArXiv at doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/kuy6p.

Virtual presentation at the 16th World Congress of Music Therapy

I'm very happy to be presenting virtually today at the World Federation of Music Therapy '16th World Congress of Music Therapy' (WCMT 2020). My presentation is entitled 'Developing Music Technology for Emotion Regulation and Motor Rehabilitation'.
The conference paper describing this work may be found here.

Joining YST Conservatory at NUS as an Assistant Professor

I'm very happy to announce that as of January 1st, I've started a new tenure-track Assistant Professor position at the the prestigious Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, at the National University of Singapore (NUS). My faculty page may be found here. It's a top-tier university, and I couldn't be more grateful for this amazing opportunity.

Annual 'Singapore Music Research Symposium' THIS FRIDAY!

This year's Music Research Symposium will take place at the YST Conservatory of Music at NUS this Friday, Sep 20th! The symposium provides the opportunity for researchers in Singapore interested in music cognition, technology, thereapy, communication, learning, information retreival, synthesis, and related fields to present and share ideas. The day-long event will offer invited speakers, an industry panel session, a poster session for student presentations, and will conclude with a short late-afternoon performance.

Inaugural talk in lecture series for local charity for special needs children - 'Extra•Ordinary People'

On 30th August, amidst breathtaking views from the 60th floor of UOB Plaza, I will be giving the inaugural talk for a new lecture series being put on by the charity 'Extra•Ordinary People', a local charity serving over 200 special needs children in Singapore. I'll be speaking on "The Extra•Ordinary Role of Music in Science and Therapy: Applications, Research and Promise for the 21st Century."

IEEE Conference on Games - paper presentation on our newest music medtech game!

This week, our new prototype game using music and motion capture to support cognition and motor function in the elderly will be presented at the IEEE Conference on Games in London, UK. The game was developed as part of a UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunity) project led by myself, Prof. Simon Lui (Tencent), and Prof. Dorien Herremans (SUTD). The paper is available here.

Grand Rounds talk this Friday morning at the National University Hospital (NUH) - all are welcome

This Friday morning, June 21st, I'm honoured to be giving a Grand Rounds talk at NUH on 'Developing Music-Based Technologies to Support Cognitive, Motor, and Emotional Wellness'. The talk is free and open to the public (one does not have to be NUH affiliated), and a light breakfast will be served. The abstract is below, and details about time and location may be found in the poster advert.

Grab yourself a Pint of Science this Wednesday night!

I'm excited to be sharing about the potential of music medtech to make big strides in healthcare this Wednesday evening (7-9pm) at Lime House, as part of Singapore's 'Pint of Science' event. Pint of Science is an international event, taking place 21st-23rd May in 24 different countries! My talk is entitled: The unsung hero of healthcare? Making the case for music in medical settings. Hope to see you there!

Invited speaker at the Clariden Global Conference on 'Applying AI and Deep Learning for Enterprises' this week

I'm honored to be invited as a Distinguished Speaker at the Clariden Global Conference this week on 'Applying AI and Deep Learning for Enterprises'. On 15 May, I will be speaking in the track on 'How Deep Learning and Machine Learning is Transforming Different Vertical Industries', presenting "The use and implications of AI for creative fields such as music".

Article in 'Towards Data Science' about our recent word2vec for music paper!

Dorien Herremans has published an article in the popular online resource 'Towards Data Science' entitled "Representing music with Word2vec?" about our recent paper in the journal Neural Computing and Applications: Chuan, Agres, & Herremans (2018) "From context to concept: exploring semantic relationships in music with word2vec."
Her article is available here.

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