Jesse Heines, Principal Investigator, is a Professor of Computer Science at UMass Lowell with a strong interest in music and its power to interest students in computing. He teaches courses on graphical user interfaces, web programming, and C++, and co-teaches the Sound Thinking course with Gena and Alex.  He was PI on an NSF CPATH award and is currently PI on an NSF TUES award.  Gena and Jesse are working on a book on interdisciplinary teaching that is currently under contract with Oxford University Press.  To keep his music alive, Jesse sings with the Lowell “Gentlemen Songsters” Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

S. Alex Ruthmann, Co-Principal Investigator, is an Associate Professor of Music Education and Music Technology at New York University.  Beginning as a middle school music teacher and computational musician, he now teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at the intersection of music education, arts computing, and research.  He has published on technology-mediated music learning and teaching, children’s musical and compositional processes, and fostering learner agency through music and technology.  Alex’s research explores social/digital media musicianship and creativity, as well as the development of technologies for music learning, teaching and engagement for use in schools and community-based arts+computing programs.

Fred Martin, Senior Personnel, is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and serves as Associate Dean of the College of Sciences at UMass Lowell.  He teaches courses in robotics, programming languages, software engineering, and artificial intelligence, and co-taught the Performamatics interdisciplinary Tangible Interaction Design course. In 2006, Fred received an NSF Faculty Early Career Development award (REC- 0546513, $599,943). His present focus is science inquiry, using electronic sensors for data collection and the web for data-sharing and visualization.

Sarah Kuhn, Senior Personnel, is a Professor of Psychology at UMass Lowell.  She is commited to innovation in learning, particularly blending technical education with the social sciences and arts, which led her to create the UMass Lowell Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Design.  Sarah is a member of the Social Science Advisory Board of the NSF-funded National Center for Women & Information Technology and was a member of the National Research Council Committee on Workforce Needs in Information Technology.  She was Co-PI of Project TechForce, an NSF-funded study of women and men working in the Massachusetts software and Internet industry.