“Our hope is that we become a place people can dream up new ideas — or big interdisciplinary collaborations — and come to us for conversations on what that can look like,” Lettero said. “Every year we try to shore it up more and more. How are we best supporting students? How are we working with the mentors? We are trying to build the structure as best we can.”

Music meets math

Among the 22 PRAx student fellows chosen for the 2023-24 academic year was Nicole Fronda, a doctoral candidate in computer science and robotics.

In her doctoral research with Houssam Abbas, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, Fronda works with simulations of drones, studying how operators can plan flight trajectories that allow different stakeholders to safely share the airspace. Her PRAx Student Fellowship project blends this research with her passion for making music to create a unique audio-visual experience.

To illustrate the challenges in safely orchestrating a sky full of speedy drones, she used music to convey simulated flight paths through “sonification,” a process that represents data as sound. The software she used included Max/MSP, an extensive visual programming language for music and multimedia.

Headphones deliver harsh sounds or pleasant melodies, depending on the potential for drone collisions. The music transitions from one side of the listener’s head to the other, creating a Doppler effect. Graphs are projected onto a screen to provide another sensory avenue for experiencing the flight paths.

Fronda says her finished project turned out nothing like she’d originally imagined. But that’s baked into the program by design: Fellows are encouraged to explore and even change their projects as the year progresses.

“I went into the fellowship with a concrete end goal for the exhibit, but that changed pretty quickly as I learned different music techniques and algorithms and spoke with my advisors,” Fronda said.

Mentors bridge worlds

Fronda chose Abbas, her thesis advisor, as her science mentor and Peter Swendsen, the Patricia Valian Reser Chair and director of the School of Visual, Performing, and Design Arts, as her art mentor.

“Nicole has these facets to her and her work,” Abbas said. “I’m merely happy to provide the room in which she can explore those things.”

Abbas was the first to suggest Fronda apply for the fellowship after she completed a creative writing exercise in his course, Big Ideas in AI. He hoped that, through the assignment, students would reflect on technology’s broader societal implications.

“I thought it would help enable the students to explore where this technology might be heading in the future, relieved of the burden of what they know to be possible or impossible today,” Abbas said. “Whether consciously or not, willingly or not, these technologies embody a certain perspective and view of human relationships.” Swendsen says the fellowship experience provides a valuable opportunity for creative students like Fronda to make a statement while expanding their own perspectives.

“It’s something students are seeking out for themselves for meaningful reasons, something they’re ready to do, but that doesn’t quite exist in their degree program,” Swendsen said. “They’re there because they want to make these connections for themselves.” Key to Fronda and Swendsen’s collaboration was the creation of space to allow for discussions that brought the fundamental aspects of the project to life.

“It’s an interesting undertaking, trying to do a sonification that conveys information. It’s a very particular kind of real-time storytelling,” Swendsen said. “It’s just delightful to see something take shape over the course of an academic year. You get to see it from the idea stage through to the actual presentation.”