R. Michael Winters

I am a designer, educator and researcher specializing in audio and music technologies. I ask questions and develop sonic applications that arise from new human-computer interactions with sound. My goal is to promote core human abilities like learning, performance and social connection through the ability to hear. I have experience conducting research in behavioral psychology and neurophysiology at the frontiers of audio interaction design (AUX) for mobile brain/body interfaces (MoBI), artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR). In May 2020, I graduated with a PhD in Music Technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. I completed my dissertation work under Dr. Grace Leslie, a neuroscientist and electronic musician working at the vanguard of brain-music-computer interfaces (BCMI) and music therapies. While at Georgia Tech, I collaborated extensively with Dr. Bruce Walker and members of the Sonification Lab, and worked with Dr. Emily Moore on sound design for the PhET Project. My approaches to prototyping and exploratory research were developed early through collaboration with Dr. Gil Weinberg and the renowned Robotic Musicianship Group. Before coming to Georgia Tech, I earned my MA in Music Technology from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montral, QC. In these formative years, I was fortunate to be surrounded by leaders in the science and technology of music at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT). My thesis research applied sonification to the contexts of expressive gesture, music information retrieval (MIR) and emotion. I learned a lot from doctoral students in the Input Devices and Music Interaction Lab, and research on Digtial Musical Instruments (DMIs) supervised by Dr. Marcelo M. Wanderley. My knowledge of science, mathematics and research began in the Physics Department at the College of Wooster. Through summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and Senior Independent Thesis program, I conducted theoretical and experimental physics research. These experiences occurred while I completed a simultaneous degree in music (piano performance). I excelled in my liberal arts education and graduated cum laude with a double minor in mathematics and philosophy.