It seems common sense that a listener's background would influence their musical preferences and emotional responses to music, yet relatively little research has been done in this area. Our research provides a new dataset, and elucidates how age, enculturation, musical training, and other profile information, influences emotion ratings of music. Our new paper, entitled 'A Music Dataset with Emotion Ratings and Raters’ Profile Information' is available in the journal Sensors.

Our paper on 'Comparing Musicians and Non-musicians’ Expectations in Music and Vision' with Marcus Pearce (QMUL) has been published in ACM Audio Mostly. Check out a quick synopsis here!

It was an amazing experience, and quite an honor, to be one of the Keynote speakers at yesterday's Culture Research Symposium on 'The Role of Arts in Well-Being and Social Inclusion', hosted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and the National Arts Council. I was so happy to see the huge turnout (wonderful to be speaking at live events again, given all of the recent restrictions on in-person meetings!).

I'm happy to be an invited speaker for the 3rd Conference on AI Music Creativity, on the Neuroscience & Health (with respect to AI Music Creativity) panel. If you're interested in attending the online event, registration is FREE! Check out the program and conference information here: https://2022.aimusiccreativity.org/
UPDATE: A recording of the panel session on Neuroscience & Health is available here.

I feel quite thankful for being one of two speakers invited to present at a special event at NUSS Guild Hall on 'A conversation on Emotional Resilience – Finding Emotional Well Being Through Music'. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to share some of my group's recent work on Music for Health and Wellness, and to be part of several wonderful conversations that happened during and after the event. It was also lovely to present in-person AND mask-free for the first time in over two years!

The Conservatory was very kind to feature an interview with me about my recent research in their monthly newsletter. If you're interested in viewing this short interview, you can watch it here.

I am honored to be an invited speaker for the lecture series hosted by the National Intrepid Center of Excellence in Washington, DC, next month. I will be talking about 'Music, Technology, and Health', and how we can leverage this exciting intersection of disciplines to forge a new (musical) frontier in healthcare. Attendance is free and open to the public!

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.

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.

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.