Digital Music and Signal Processing Afterschool Club

The Tangible Interaction Design and Learning (TIDAL) Lab is an interdisciplinary research group at Northwestern University with expertise in Computer Science, Education, and Music Technology (https://tidal.northwestern.edu). The TIDAL Lab partners with community organizations in the greater Chicago area to create equitable learning experiences that engage students whose voices have been historically marginalized in STEM fields. Over the past four years we have created a free, online learning platform called TunePad (https://tunepad.live) that enables the creation of music through computer programming. When someone first visits the TunePad site, they can browse through a library of popular songs, follow step-by-step interactive tutorials, or listen to music created by other users. All of the music on TunePad is built entirely with Python code and can be remixed as a starting point for new projects. More recently we have been developing a digital signal processing component of TunePad that allows learners to create customized musical instruments using modular audio synthesis techniques starting from waveforms, samples, and noise and including a variety of filters, effects, and modulators. We propose a partnership with the IEEE Signal Processing Society to directly engage students of color in Chicago Public Schools through an afterschool club on the topics of music and technology. The project will involve four components and include opportunities for SPS members to contribute through volunteer activities. If successful, the curriculum and technology developed in year 1 will be made available to a much larger audience. Component 1: Technology (Sept - January) The TunePad team will complete the digital signal processing component of the TunePad web platform. We anticipate four months of development time with a completion date of January 2021. Component 2: Curriculum (Sept - January) The TunePad team will collaborate with SPS volunteers to develop curriculum and documentation on digital signal processing appropriate for middle school learners. Component 3: Afterschool Club (January - April, 2021) In partnership with the James R. Jordan Foundation, the TunePad team will run afterschool clubs at four Chicago Public Schools from January - April, 2021. The clubs focus on topics of music and technology and will be an ideal setting to pilot test new curriculum and technology developed in partnership with SPS. We will also create opportunities for members of SPS to volunteer their time and expertise as guest speakers. Component 4: Scale-Up (April - ) After the afterschool clubs complete, we will refine and publish our curriculum and technology for broader use. We look forward to working with SPS to identify other potential partner sites.