Internet 1996 World Exposition/park.org.s3.amazonaws.com.7z/park.org.s3.amazonaws.com/Pavilions/BrainOpera/people/Bios.2

Text File | 2017-09-21 | 34KB | 647 lines

Website Bios

Tod Machover
Director, Composer

[no bio]


Margaret Orth *
Interface Design, Technical Director, Production Manager

After receiving a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1986, I created installations
and gallery shows in the NY area until my artistic interests in new audiences, media and
technology led me to the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. In 1993, I received a Master of Science for my thesis Skin Flicks, a
feminist video and performance work.  I have since worked as a technical director and
theater artisan in a variety of Boston productions and multi-media exhibitions. I have also
continued to show video and installations locally and pursued my Suitcase Full of Dreams,
a portable interactive vehicle for the representation of women.  After working for the
Computer Clubhouse, a children's program at the Computer Museum in Boston, I founded
and now direct a computer art program for children at the Community Art Center in
Cambridge, a United Way organization.

The Brain Opera and the environment of the Media Lab have given me the tremendous
possibility of combining my various interests and expertise.  This project gave me the
opportunity to coordinate and integrate an incredible range of people and technology,  from
the computer systems, to the physical set,  to the electronics, audio and video equipment
and theatrical needs.  Of particular pleasure was my time spent developing the molded
plastic musical instruments in the project.  Next year, I am very much looking  forward to
beginning a Ph.D. student here at the M.I.T. Media Lab with Tod Machover as my
advisor.  I hope to continue to create new projects with him and  plan to focus on the
physical design and structure of digital instruments, objects and environments.  I also plan
to pursue my personal interest in the empowerment of young women by giving them a
better understanding of and education in, technology.  Ultimately, I hope to be able to
create new models for young women through toys and media and to develop my web-
based women super heroes, the Technae.


Tanya Vivienne Bezreh
Company Manager, Design Assistant

Tanya comes to the Media Lab with a great passion for interactive technology, and a
background in art and theater.  Before graduating with a degree in English last year, she
was active in founding Harvard University╒s first puppet theater, The Onion Weavers,
whose productions included Aristophanes' The Frogs, Star Wars (a one-hour condensation
of the trilogy), and Elvis: A Rockumentary in Puppets.  She also studied drawing,
painting, computer-aided design, and animation, and made an animated film entitled "Inside
Out."  During her summers, Tanya travelled to Germany writing for the popular travel
guide Let's Go: Europe 1994, and was editor of Let's Go: Germany 1995.  Periodically,
she flies out to Cincinnati to consult for the product invention firm Richard Saunders Intl.


Susan Murphy-Bottari
Administrative Assistant

Susan Murphy-Bottari, administrative assistant for Professors Gershenfeld, and Machover
and the Thing That Think consortium, came to the Media Laboratory in 1992 as senior staff
assistant to the director.  Previously, she was administrative assistant at WTE International,
an international management consulting firm.  She is a recent Katharine Gibbs School
graduate with honors.


Sharon Daniel
Visual Design Director

Sharon Daniel is a video artist specializing in interactive video sculpture.  Her previous
collaboration with Tod Machover, VALIS SONG, a multi-channel video and sound
installation, was presented at The Kitchen in New York in April, 1993. Sharon's video,
╥Narrative Contingencies", was recently on exhibition in "The Computer in the Studio" at
the Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA.  "Narrative Contingencies"
was also screened in Chicago, Ill. at the Women in the Directors Chair 1995 International
Film and Video Festival. "Eugellionne: the body of the possible", a dance and video
performance presented in Boston in November 1995 was supported by a grant from The
Polaroid Corporation.  An interactive CD ROM version of this performance "The Body of
The Possible"  will be completed in 1997. Sharon's designs for "ALIVE, Dreams and
Illusions", a hardware-free virtual environment for networked participants and artificially
intelligent autonomous agents was presented in Los Angeles at SIGGRAPH ╘95.  Her
interactive video sculpture, ╥Strange Attraction:  Non-logical Phase-lock over Space-like
Intervals", was presented at M.I.T.╒s Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) in
January, 1993 and published in Technology Review.

Sharon will begin her Assistant Professorship at the University of California, Santa Cruz in
1996.  She was formerly a Lecturer in Video Art for Rhode Island School of Design and
the Visual Arts Program at MIT, and a visiting artist at St. Martin's School of Art in
London.  Sharon holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from Baylor University, a Master of
Music Degree in opera production and direction from the University of Texas, and a Master
of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.


Ray Kinoshita
Architect

[no bio]


Joseph Paradiso
Electronics Design Director, Performer

Joseph Paradiso joined the research staff of the Media Laboratory in 1994 to explore novel
applications of sensor technologies for opening new channels of computer-user interaction.
During this period, he has designed many new interface devices based on electric field
sensing, magnetics, acoustics, radar, and optics; these have included wireless violin bow
trackers (used in performance by violinist Ani Kevaffian), the body-sensing "Spirit Chair"
(used in performance by the magician duo Penn & Teller), gesture-sensing frames (for
collaboration with the artist formerly known as Prince), interactive piezoelectric balloons,
musical radars, and scanning electric-field sensor arrays.  As Technology Director for
Things That Think, he will identify and pursue new areas of technical development for
injection into TTT devices and projects.  He also directs the design of sensor and interface
hardware for the Brain Opera in collaboration with composer and Media Lab Professor Tod
Machover.  Paradiso received a B.S. in electrical engineering and physics summa cum
laude from Tufts University in 1977, and in 1981 completed a Ph.D. in physics from MIT
as a C.T. Compton Fellow in the Nobel Prize-winning group headed by Samuel C.C.
Ting.  His dissertation research was based on an experiment measuring high-energy muon
pair production at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva,
Switzerland.  From 1981 to 1984 he conducted post-doctoral research at the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, where he developed precision drift chambers and
fast electronics for the inner tracker of the L3 experiment at CERN/LEP.  From 1984-1994
he was a physicist at the Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where, as a
member of the NASA Systems and Advanced Sensors and Signal Processing Directorates,
his research encompassed control algorithms for orbital and re-entry spacecraft, sonar
systems for advanced underwater applications, fractal-based image processing, and high-
energy physics detectors.  From 1992-1994, he directed the development of precision
alignment sensors for the GEM muon detector at the Superconducting Supercollider, and
was a visiting scientist at ETH-Zurich in 1991 and 1992 to design fast pattern-recognition
algorithms for triggering an electromagnetic crystal calorimeter at the CERN Large Hadron
Collider.  In addition to his physics career, Paradiso has been designing electronic music
synthesizers and composing electronic music since 1975, and long been active in the avant-
garde music scene as a producer of electronic music programs for non-commercial radio.
He has built (and still uses) one of the world's largest modular synthesizers, and has
designed MIDI systems for internationally-known musicians such as Pat Metheney and
Lyle Mays.  He was a visiting scientist at the Media Lab in 1993, where he collaborated in
research and initial implementations of electric field sensing.  Paradiso has published and
internationally lectured in many areas, including high-energy physics, spacecraft control,
sensor systems, and electronic music.


Paul Krajniak
Theatrical Consultant

[no bio]


June Kinoshita
Libretto Author

[no bio]


Marvin Minsky
Author of The Society of Mind

[no bio]


Teresa Marrin
Performer, Digital Baton Designer, Website Director

Teresa Marrin is in her second year in the Masters' program at the Media Lab, and will
graduate this coming June.  Her work has focused on the design of software tools for
analyzing and teaching musical expression.  Her current project is the Digital Baton -- an
object which has been designed and optimized for sophisticated gestural sensing.  Through
collaboration with and support from Joe Paradiso, Maggie Orth, Chris Verplaetse, Pete
Rice, and Patrick Pelletier, a prototype baton and an accompanying software system have
been built.  It debuted in London at the South Bank Center in early March, with great
success.  It will continue to be developed with the intention of using it as a gestural
"conducting" device in the Brain Opera.

Teresa has done music almost all her life in one form or another, and started playing the
violin at the age of seven.  She received an A.B. in music from Harvard-Radcliffe in 1992.
During her undergraduate years, she founded a student orchestra and trained in orchestral
conducting.  She also directed three opera productions, including Mozart's Magic Flute.

After graduating from college, Teresa lived in India on a Rockefeller Fellowship, studying
the Hindustani raga system with Pandit S. G. Devasthali.  The music of India continues to
occupy her imagination, and since 1993 she has given numerous performances and lecture-
demonstrations on Hindustani and Carnatic musical styles.


Ben Denckla *
Software Development Director

Ben Denckla is a Master╒s student at the Media Lab in Prof. Machover╒s Group, with a
focus in artistic (particularly musical) applications of computers.  I played the cello from
age 9 on, studying solo repertoire and playing in orchestras and chamber groups.  I became
interested in computers from 4th-6th grade and then lost interest for about four years; I╒ve
been playing around with them ever since.  While at Harvard College, I studied with Ivan
Tcherepnin and began to merge my cello, computer, and electrical engineering interests by
working on improvisatory pieces for electric cello.  For the Brain Opera, Patrick Pelletier
and I have written Rogus McBogus, a MIDI application framework.  I am presently
working on some image processing applications for the Brain Opera.


Peter Rice
Overall Music Software Development and Design

Hailing from Balboa Island in sunny, Southern California, Pete Rice thought he'd given up
everything when he arrived at MIT as a freshman. After four years of brain bending
education, however, this beach bum turned computer programmer finally realized that
Boston
did have some fine micro-breweries. Despite the best efforts of the professors in his major,
Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Pete never forgot his first passion, music. Whether by
playing guitar in a band or by designing interactive music systems for Professor Tod
Machover at the Media Lab, Pete has always kept music as a large part of his life.  Before
joining the Brain Opera team, Pete had designed software for several other projects with
Professor Machover, including the spatial music experience in Vox cubed and the Penn and
Teller Sensor Chair. In the Brain Opera, Pete faces his most ambitious design challenge
yet, with primary responsibilities for the music software in the Performance space as well
Harmonic Driving and the Gesture Wall. At some time during this process, Pete will begin
as a Master's student at the MIT Media Lab studying under Professor Machover. Pete's
goal in life is to continue making big, high-tech performance experiences in a variety of
musical styles that will "blow people away." He hopes one day to actually get paid for
doing this so he can afford to buy better beer.


Eric Metois
Interactive Internet Design

After intensive training in Mathematics Marseille where I grew up, I studied electrical
engineering at the "Ecole Nationale Superieuredes Telecommunications" in Paris (ENST),
with a specialization in signal processing. After some previous experiences with processing
signals of various natures (Speech, Video, and even under-water RF), I was introduced to
the field of Computer Music through a six-month-long internship at UC Berkeley with
David Wessel in 1990. I paid my first visit to Boston in December 1990 and took a look at
the MIT's Media Lab at David's recommendation.  Unable to find any similar institution
back in France, I applied to the Lab's Ph.D. program and here I am... I have been a Ph.D.
student and a research assistant at the Media Lab since fall 1992 under the advisory of Prof.
Machover, with the mission to apply the newest ideas and techniques of signal processing
and information theory to the study of musical sounds.  My current thesis work involves
non-linear system theory and embeddings in a quest for perceptually and physically
meaningful sound synthesis models that can be inferred from the observation of a musical
instrument's behavior.


Ed Hammond
Audio Director

[bio already exists]


Charles Tang
Internet Coordinator

[no bio]


Ben Adida
Webmaster I

I was born in Royal Oak,MI, and moved back to France before I turned a
month old (born in 77)
I lived in France until I turned 9, then went back to Michigan, until the
age of 12 at which point i went back to France.
I came to Boston to attend MIT undergrad in Sept. 1994, where I am
majoring in Theoretical Computer Science, and have just finished my
sophomore year.  I have done much work on the Web, working for Hearst in NYC last
summer, and on various departments' web sites around MIT.  For the Brainop, I've
worked on the original web site and on the development of our Internet activities. My work
involves site maintenance and HTML/CGI development.


Matt Gorbet *
Harmonic Driving Game Designer

Matt Gorbet has been interested in computer graphics, animation, video and graphic design
all his life.  During the summers in high school he worked at a Canadian company called
Topix, doing graphics for TV commercials and music videos.  At the Media Lab, and he
has been involved in many diverse projects in Interactive Cinema, the Visible Language
Workshop, Spatial Imaging (holography), Personal Information Architecture, and
Hyperinstruments.  He has also done some interface and artwork design for two interactive
television projects -- one for Nynex Science and Technologies, and one for Silicon
Graphics and NTT Interactive (Japan).  Matt recently graduated from M.I.T., with a joint
Architecture/Media Arts and Sciences major, and a departmental concentration in visual arts
plus a minor in Film and Media Studies.  He will attend the Media Lab as a Masters student
for the Fall of 1996.


<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Matt Gorbet</TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY background="/graphics/signaturesbw.gif">
<center><h1>Matt Gorbet</h1>
<hr size=3 width=40%><p>
<img width=50% src="/graphics/people/mgorbet.jpg"><p>
<table width=85%>
<tr><td>
<h3>
Matt Gorbet graduated in June from <a href="http://web.mit.edu/">MIT</a>, with a
 unique double-major in Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences.  Some of his i
nterests include computer graphics, animation, video and graphic design.  He's w
orked at the <a href="http://www.media.mit.edu">Media Lab</a> since he first arr
ived at MIT, participating in projects with Interactive Cinema, the Visible Lang
uage Workshop, Spatial Imaging (holography), Personal Information Architecture,
and Hyperinstruments.  He will be joining the Media Lab as a Graduate student wi
th the Tangible Media Group in fall 1996.

Outside the Media Lab, Matt has worked on interface, art, and design projects fo
r television and interactive media, including work with Nynex Science and Techno
logies and with <a href="http://www.sgi.com">Silicon Graphics</a> and NTT Intera
ctive (Japan).
</h3>
</td></tr></table></center><p>
<hr>
<center><a href="/img/menu-bar.map"><img border=0 src="/graphics/menu.gif" ISMAP
></a></center>
<hr>
<address>[e-mail]</address>
</body>
</html>

Rolf Rando
Harmonic Driving Software Design

Rolf Rando, an MIT senior in Computer Science, is implementing the 3D graphics and
game programming for the Brain Opera's Harmonic Driving component. In 1994 he
invented a realtime artistic 3D realtime rendering system which is being used for the game.
He is co-founder of ThinkFish Productions Inc., a San Francisco game company which he
will be rejoining upon graduation. In his copious spare time Rolf enjoys skiing and
travelling, among other things.


Katherine Suejung Park
Visual Design Assistant

Kat Park is a graduating senior with a major in Computer Science and Engineering and
minor in Architecture design.  She joined the Brain Opera project in May 1994 as an
Undergraduate Research Assistant.  She has contributed to the conceptual design of the
interactive musical stations, especially in visual aspects.  Collaborating with the principle
architect Ray Kinoshita, she launched a series of graphic user interface prototypes for each
of the game stations.  As an extension to Ben Denckla's "Cindy System," she also
generated a graphics software which provide unique transition methods for displaying
images continously.  In addtion, she was involved in the Marvin Minsky station design, as
well as various image creation and production.


Maribeth Back
Sound Designer, Performer

Maribeth Back is currently finishing her doctorate at Harvard's Graduate School of Design.
She is researching the integration of sonic elements into the design of multi-modal
computational tools and environments. As a sound designer, she finds the Brain Opera's
instruments and environments an exciting challenge in intelligent interactive design.
Maribeth is a  sound designer and audio engineer whose work includes sound design for
theatre and CD-ROM, sound theory and system design for virtual environments, and
performance installation pieces. A new piece opened at the "hello world! Internet privat"
exhibition opening January 30, 1996, at the Museum of Design in Zurich. Other recent
work includes Canopy, a sound and light work conceptualized by David Ward that was
installed in Harvard Yard during May 1994. In October of 1993 her work was featured at
the Museum of Design in Zurich, where she installed a sound work in collaboration with
K/K Research and Development's Renegade Cities exhibition. She also spent the summer
of 1995 at Interval Research in Palo Alto, CA.

From 1989-1993, as resident sound designer at the American Repertory Theatre in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Maribeth created the sound environments for more than forty
Mainstage and New Stages productions.  Her work in sound over the past eighteen years
has ranged from producer and announcer for a public radio station in Fairbanks, Alaska to
radio engineer for NBC Radio in New York to staff engineer for Big Apple Studios, a
major recording studio in Manhattan.


John Yu
Singing Tree Software Design and Development

[bio already exists]


Patrick Pelletier *
Overall Music Software Development and Design

Patrick Pelletier is a senior at M.I.T.  He joined the Brain Opera in September and has done
a variety of things related to the it.  He helped Ben Denckla do the low-level programming
of Rogus McBogus, the application framework which most of the Brain Opera software is
built on.  He has written software for the Rhythm Tree, and helped Sharon Daniel
prototype the visual experience for the Gesture Wall. Patrick has also been working with
Pete Rice and Teresa Marrin on code for the Digital Baton, which will be used in the Brain
Opera performance space.  Patrick also does a variety of other random things, including
some Java programming and system administration. He comes from, and hopes to return to
Wichita,

Patrick Pelletier is a junior in Course 6-3. Patrick was born in San Diego, California, but
grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and hopes to return to Wichita in the future.

Patrick joined the Brain Opera Team at the beginning of this school year and has done a
variety of things related to the Brain Opera.  He has done a lot of low-level programming,
including helping Ben Denckla write Rogus McBogus, the application framework which
most of the Brain Opera software will be built on.  He has written software for the Rhythm
Tree, and is starting to help Sharon Daniel prototype the visual experience for the Gesture
Wall. Patrick has also been working with Pete Rice and Teresa Marrin on code for the
Digital Baton, which will be used in the Brain Opera performance space. Patrick also does
a variety of other random things, including some Java programming and system
administration.


Seum-Lin Gan

[no bio]


Talib Morgan

[no bio]


Carl Malamud
Telecom Infrastructure Consultant

[no bio]


Richard Ciliberto
Electronics/Hardware Consultant

Independent musician and consultant of Studio-Q-Electronics, Boston, MA. Provided
construction and packaging design of the Brain Opera's Harmonic Driving, Gesture Wall,
and Rhythm Tree electronic systems. Also worked on Penn and Teller's performance
electronics used in Las Vegas.


Laura Gerson
Production Assistant

Looking to get away from home for the summer, Laura just joined the Brain Opera.  She
isn't quite sure exactly what is going on with the entire process of producing the Brain
Opera, but has thoroughly enjoyed spray painting about one hundred electrical outlets,
cleaning the cube, making molds of noses and ears, and assembling circuit boards.  She is
also anxiously awaiting the arduous task of potting three hundred fifty circuit boards into
drumpads.  Laura joins the Brain Opera staff from Long Island.  Laura has just finished her
first year at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.   Her experience was described as
a good one.   She left Colgate this year with her mind set on pursuing a major in either
chemistry or biochemistry and a pair of well defined calf muscles from climbing Colgate's
infamous cardiac hill too many times to count.  While at Colgate this year Laura wrote for
the school's newspaper, The Maroon News.  She also played on the club water polo and
rugby teams and was a member of SMUTCO, the student run theater group.  Her two
major goals for next year are to find a ride up the hill every morning and to pass organic
chemistry.


Josh Smith
Cam-8 Visual Effects and PIC Programmer

Josh Smith is currently a Ph.D. student at the MIT Media Lab in Neil Gershenfeld's
Physics and Computation group.  He been included on a patent for the electric field sensors
featured in the Gesture Wall. He has developed a three dimensional mouse using the same
sensors.  His many interests include quantum and parallel computation.  He has
participated in developing the low level code for the fish sensors, and the programming of
the CAM 8, for generating video effects He has a BS is in philosophy from Williams
College and he possesses two MS's, one from Cambridge University in Physics and one
from the Media Lab in Physics and computation.


Joel Rosenberg
Hardware Development

Joel Rosenberg '99 is entering the Material Science and Engineering department at MIT.
After being brought to the Brain Opera late by Joe Paradiso, he has been serving as an odds
and ends man for the past several months, taking care of various details on various aspects
of the project.  He is thrilled to have had the opportunity to work at the Media Lab, and
hopes to continue on there past the Brain Opera, having had such a great experience.  Joel
enjoys playing the drums, skiing, and listening to music. He thinks of maybe going to
work for a toy manufacturer after college and making enough money to run for Congress.
Until then, he'll try to make it through Tech with no regrets. This is also his Lincoln Center
debut.

Joel is a sophmore at MIT majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.  He
has been working in the Physics and Media Lab offering hardware support.


Josh Strickon
Webmaster II

I am from Great Neck, N.Y.  I have been playing piano since I was a child.  I am very
interested in music and media.  I will be a junior at MIT and I am currently pursuing a
double degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with Media Arts and
Sciences.  Most recently, I have been researching the web and web technologies.  I was a
participant in the Media Lab's 1010 event last October.  I am interested in pushing the limits
of what can be done over the internet.  A side from academics, I am very interested in water
sports.  I have been SCUBA diving since I was 13 and have completed Master Scuba Diver
training by the time I was fifteen.  I have certifications in Night Diving, Deep Diving,
Underwater Video, Boat Diving, Marine Awareness, Underwater Navigation, and
Underwater Naturalist.  I have also dove wrecks and experiment in Underwater
Photography.  Other than diving, I love swimming, waterskiing, skurfing, windsurfing
and sailing.  I have frequented Lincoln Center since I was a child and am excited to
participate in a production there.  I am currently the web master of the Brain Opera and
hope to be involved in future development of new Brain Opera Instruments.


Suzanne B. Lowell
Lighting Designer

Suzanne currently serves on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory.  Her designs have
been seen at Boston's Symphony Hall, The Zieterion Theatre [Phantom, La Cage Aux
Folles, Oklahoma!], Chiswick Park Theatre [World Goes 'Round, My One And Only,
Most Happy Fella], Boston Center for the Arts [Stand Up Tragedy, Unidentified Human
Remains..., Hello Again], The Lyric Stage [Jeffrey, Love Valor and Compassion],
Emerson's Majestic Theatre and the Boston Conservatory [Sweeney Todd, Follies and 7
Deadly Sins with Anna Sokolow].  Suzanne's designs for fundraisers and special events
have been seen at Boston's Four Seasons Hotel, The Charles, Lafayette and Westin
Hotels, The Atrium at Chestnut Hill, The Pine Brook Country Club and International Place
[Art Cetera].  Suzanne would like to thank her family and friends for their continued love
and support.


Jin Kang
Visual Design Assistant

B.S. Film and Media Studies, MIT 1996
Jin's involvement in the Brain Opera marks the conclusion of three years of innovative
work with Tod Machover's group at the MIT Media Lab.  Her diverse interests have
brought her to play many parts at the lab and in other non-MIT projects.  Her favorites are
that of amateur filmmaker, photographer, designer, programmer, musician, producer,
media theorist and "Gesture Cube" guru. She will begin graduate studies in film production
at USC this fall.


Meredith Broussard
Talking Tree Technical Director

Meredith Broussard joins the Brain Opera team after retiring from the company about to be
formerly known as AT&T Bell Labs.  She likes to think of herself as a combination of Bill
Gates and Martha Stewart: in addition to her duties as Technical Director of the Talking
Forest, she enjoys entertaining on a grand scale.  Although she lacks a home in Westport or
Seattle, she does call Boston home for the time being, and is hard at work redecorating her
immediate surroundings.  Future plans include becoming a multimedia guru and, like her
cartoon idols Pinky and the Brain, attempting to take over the world.  She hopes to
accomplish this from New Jersey, where she grew up and indeed returned after her 1995
graduation from Harvard University.


Michael Wiener
Production/Video Assistant

Michael Wiener is an only child who cultivated a taste for performance to pass the lazy days
of youth.  He brings to the Brain Opera a broad repertoire in multimedia arts, ranging from
seven years of modern dance to two years of puppet theater and a good Martha Stewart eye
for style.  He has worked in BostonUs modern dance community with choreographers
Caitlin Corbette, Helena Chang and George Whiteside, after training in the performing arts
in native Larchmont, New York with John Frederickson and Martha Barylick.  A recent
graduate of Harvard University╒s prestigious Social Studies concentration, he sustains
academic interests in social policy reform, focusing on community health care.  He joins
the Brain Opera to innagurate a year of freedom which he will celebrate before entering the
Mount Sinai School of Medicine.  He plans to live out his media dreams before donating
them to science.


Kai-yuh Hsiao
Melody Easel Software Designer

Having just finished his freshman year at MIT, Kai-yuh Hsiao is just getting used to life at
college, life at the Media Lab, and life in general.  He's from Delaware but since so few
people have heard of it, he doesn't often comment on that.  Some of his high school
experiences included placing in the top fifteen in the USA Computing Olympiad, winning
second place in the Eastern Division of the Yamaha Piano Concerto Competition, and
attending the Research Science Institute summer program at MIT.  So far at MIT, he has
taught the SIPB Crash Course in C and worked at the Media Lab, where heUs having an
amazingly good time!  He plays computer games and the piano in his spare time, but he's
also becoming alarmed at how quickly classes eat away at his spare time.  His goals mostly
involve getting more sleep.


Ara Knaian
Rhythm Tree Electronics Designer

Ara is an MIT sophmore in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.  His expertise in
embedded computing was used to create the 330 pads of the Rhythm Tree.


Matt Reynolds
Electronics Development and Design

Matt Reynolds is a Senior in MITUs Course 6 Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science.  He has a strong background in RF, microwave and radar, and real-time
computing.  He worked on radar for the Brain Opera╒s Gesture Wall and on Rhythm Tree
hardware.


Craig Abler
Sensor Floor Electronics Designer

Craig Alber is an MIT senior majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. For
the Brain Opera, he worked as a hardware specialist, developing the sensor carpet for the
performance space.


Andrew Garcia
Internet Broadcasting

-undergraduate at MIT majoring in a joint degree of Music and Electrical
Engineering/Computer Science.  just finished my third year.
-born in Annapolis, Maryland.  called Austin, Texas home until i came up here
to MIT.
-started working with Tod in January of this year, when the internet part of
the project was just forming.
-responsible for introducing the lab to Xing and broadcasting the Brain Opera
performances live using Streamworks.
-now working on the interactive music applications that will provide internet
users with a way to participate in the Brain Opera.


William Oliver
Singing Tree Audio Designer

Will Oliver joins the Brain Opera Group as a graduate research assistant whose projects
include The Forest Singing Tree and the Baton and as Technical Director of the Hyperstring
concert.  Will's interest in the Brain Opera is really his own interest in music, technology,
and novel techology policy.  Will studied voice and sound recording technology for two
years at SUNY Fredonia while gigging with the locally world-famous Generic Band.  In
1991, Will moved to the University of Rochester and graduated Summa Cum Laude in
1995 with a B.A. in Japanese and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering.  Will was a finalist in
the Eighth National Speech Contest in Japanese (1993), and he has spent three years in
Japan as a Rotary H.S. exchange student (1986), a Monbusho Scholar at Nagoya
University (1994), and an intern with Kanazawa University, Sony Corporation, and
General Motors Japan.  Will's work in Japan as a Monbusho Scholar resulted in three
publications in Japanese, including "Choudendou to sono Kokusai Kyouryoku"
("Superconductivity and its International Cooperation"), for which Will was elected to the
USA Today All-USA College Academic Team.  Will is affiliated with  Phi Beta Kappa and
Tau Beta Pi, and he is a student member of the NSPE and IEEE.  Will is currently a first
year graduate student in the Department of Electrcal Engineering and Computer Science on
a NDSEG Fellowship.  His interests are in high speed phenomena, DSP, and international
technology policy.  In his spare time, Will's hobbies include wine making, composing
music, and playing out live.

Noah Schottenfeld
Audio Design Assistant

Noah Schottenfeld is from Dexter, Maine and is a sophomore at MIT.  Currently, he is
undecided on his major but has strong interests in media arts and sciences, neuroscience,
computer science and electrical engineering.  He enjoys playing/listening to music, reading,
and socializing with friends in his spare time.

David Small

[no bio]


Charles Tang
Internet Coordinator

Chris Verplaetse
Digital Baton Design and Development Team

Chris Verplaetse, a member of the Brain Opera's hardware team, helped to design,
fabricate, and program and Digital Baton. He is currently a graduate student and research
assistant at the MIT Media Lab in the Physics and Media Group.  His research interests
involve the design and creation of motion-cognitive and motion-responsive systems.
Before coming to MIT, Chris worked for a year at TechnoFrolics, a high-tech art firm in
Boston, designing and building prototype kinetic sculptures. He also writes music for and
plays guitar. He received his B.S. in aerospace engineering (magna cum laude) from
Boston University in 1994.