MEET THE MIT BILINGUALS

Pairing music and technology

Madeline Wong ’21, a double major in music and EECS, boosts signal processing of ConcertCue, an app that infuses concerts with performance insights.

 

Madeline Wong ’21 performs with the Chorallaries, MIT’s oldest coed a cappella group. Photo: Vivian Hu ’18


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Music theory and machine learning depend on similar intellectual strengths: attention to detail, precision, the intuitive grasp of patterns. But they often manifest differently—in songs and concerts, or through technology. Madeline Wong ’21, who majored in electrical engineering and computer science and in music, came to MIT to put her passions for art and science together.

“Music and computer science complement one another a lot, especially because the music we consume now exists digitally,” she says.

Wong loved music from a young age, beginning with piano at five and moving to flute, mellophone, saxophone, and bassoon. She’s also self-taught in guitar and ukulele. “I don’t remember my life without music. That was always there,” she says.

Now a grad student in the MIT Music Technology Lab in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, she works with professor of the practice Eran Egozy ’93, MNG ’95 on ConcertCue, a mobile web app under development since 2018 that streams text, images, and media live during concerts, precisely timed to key moments in the performance. Think of it as Wikipedia synchronized to music.

Full profile at MIT Spectrum

 

Suggested links

MIT Music and Theater Arts

Music Technology at MIT

Gallery | Meet the MIT Bilinguals