August 24, 2010

Summertime and the undergraduate researcher: part two of five

Engineering student and musician Emily Marasco designed a prototype of a device that turns sound from musical instruments into pictures on a screen.
Photo credit: Riley BrandtFrom the marginalized status of ancient potters to engineering a training tool for musicians, the PURE (Program for Undergraduate Research Experience) awards foster genuine research interests at the undergraduate level and provide practical financial support for the experience.

The PURE awards are supported by the Office of the Provost and the Teaching and Learning Funding Committee, who promote the university’s commitment to teaching and learning. Since the program’s inception in 2008, 180 undergraduates have received PURE awards.

For a musician, great satisfaction comes from finally mastering the technique of playing an instrument. But it’s difficult for young music students to understand what sound they need to strive for. A student at the Schulich School of Engineering has developed a device to help.

Emily Marasco is entering her fourth year of computer engineering with a minor in music. She received a PURE award to fine tune her design for a gadget that turns sound waves into pictures on a screen. Her goal is to help students in high school bands hone their music skills.

“Young musicians don’t often get the chance to hear professionals play their particular instruments solo, so they don’t know what they’re supposed to sound like in terms of tone quality,” says Marasco, who has played in school bands since junior high. “This system will allow students to compare their own frequency output to the frequency display of a professional on the same instrument.”

Marasco designed a machine that turns sound waves into pictures on a screen, which will help high school band students hone their music skills. Photo credit: Riley BrandtHer prototype evolved from a first-year design project. Her instructor at the time was Daryl Caswell, an engineer and professional French horn player with the Red Deer Symphony.

“Tone quality is generally what separates the artist from the 'wannabe,’” explains Caswell. “If students can see how their tone quality and air flow change as they experiment with how they make sound, they can improve more quickly. This is something that’s almost entirely absent from the training tools of the musician.”

Marasco’s current supervising professor, Mike Smith at the Schulich School of Engineering, works in the area of signal processing. He is a former high school teacher and says it will be interesting to test the gadget in high schools to see what students think.

“From an engineering standpoint, this is a tough project because it has to work quickly and work on a real system with real people all the time. That’s a very difficult thing to do,” explains Smith. The complexity of the project boils down to the computer algorithm used to turn sound waves from into visual representations.

This fall, Marasco will build a database of recorded notes played by accomplished musicians. She has a valuable resource: her peers in the U of C wind ensemble and orchestra, in which she plays the oboe and English horn.

Read part one: Autumn Whiteway