{"612010":{"#nid":"612010","#data":{"type":"news","title":"EarSketch Team Receives $2.1 Million Grant to Add AI \u2018Co-Creative\u2019 To Platform","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBy Michael Pearson\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe National Science Foundation has awarded a team led by Brian Magerko of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.lmc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Literature, Media, and Communication\u003C\/a\u003E a four-year $2.1 million grant to explore adding an AI assistant to the award-winning \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/earsketch.gatech.edu\/landing\/#\/\u0022\u003EEarSketch\u003C\/a\u003E computer science, music, and technology learning platform.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe assistant would act as a creative collaborator with students using the music-based learning platform, helping them create in new ways and discover new techniques, said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/people\/faculty\/magerko\u0022\u003EMagerko\u003C\/a\u003E, an LMC professor who co-founded \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/earsketch.gatech.edu\/landing\/#\/\u0022\u003EEarSketch\u003C\/a\u003E in 2011 with Jason Freeman, a professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology\u0026#39;s School of Music who also is co-principal investigator on the most recent grant.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We\u0026rsquo;re thinking about a resource that you can tap on the shoulder, a buddy that knows a bit more than you do that you can call on,\u0026rdquo; Magerko said. \u0026ldquo;You can imagine writing a piece of code that creates a chorus. You tap on the AI, and it says, \u0026lsquo;That\u0026rsquo;s so sweet! I\u0026rsquo;m going to use that.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe proposed EarSketch assistant would provide users with help in an environment where \u0026ldquo;aesthetics and technical questions go hand-in-hand in the curriculum and course projects,\u0026rdquo; Magerko said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech and University of Florida to Collaborate on Research\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMagerko is partnering with a team from the University of Florida, which received a related $862,472 NSF grant for its part of the research. The Florida team will be studying how high school students would use such an agent, while Magerko and his team will work on the technical underpinnings of the artificial intelligence agent.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAlthough some work has begun already, the bulk of the research study will begin in fall 2019, Magerko said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EEarSketch has been used by 265,000 youth and educators in 100 countries to help teach computer science, music, and technology skills to students, particularly minorities and girls who are often underserved by Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) programs.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMagerko, EarSketch, Also Named in Second Grant\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe grant is one of two recently announced involving Magerko and EarSketch. The second grant, also from the National Science Foundation, is for a project spearheaded by Northwestern University that seeks to expand participation in computer science programs by way of music, dance and writing code.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThat $999,865 grant goes mostly to Northwestern University, Magerko said. The Georgia Tech portion entails incorporating EarSketch into digital notebooks that combine programming code, music, video, lyrics, and other digital creations. Magerko is co-investigator on that project. Michael Horn of Northwestern University is the lead researcher.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe School of Literature, Media, and Communication is a unit of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026shy;\u0026shy;\u0026shy;\u0026shy;\u0026shy;\u0026shy;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe National Science Foundation has awarded a team led by Brian Magerko of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.lmc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Literature, Media, and Communication\u003C\/a\u003E a four-year $2.1 million grant to explore adding an AI assistant to the award-winning \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/earsketch.gatech.edu\/landing\/#\/\u0022\u003EEarsketch\u003C\/a\u003E computer science, music, and technology learning platform.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The AI assistant would not be a visual character, but would help students learn new techniques."}],"uid":"34600","created_gmt":"2018-09-26 20:26:17","changed_gmt":"2018-10-19 13:25:49","author":"mpearson34","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2018-09-26T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2018-09-26T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"601712":{"id":"601712","type":"image","title":"Students using Earsketch","body":null,"created":"1517510180","gmt_created":"2018-02-01 18:36:20","changed":"1517510180","gmt_changed":"2018-02-01 18:36:20","alt":"","file":{"fid":"229349","name":"Earsketch.PNG","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Earsketch.PNG","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Earsketch.PNG","mime":"image\/png","size":1574330,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Earsketch.PNG?itok=lZTPNgxI"}}},"media_ids":["601712"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/news-events\/stories\/2018\/6\/earsketch-named-websites-teaching-learning-2018\/607285","title":"Earsketch named as one of the top websites for Teaching and Learning for 2018"},{"url":"https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/news-events\/stories\/2017\/1\/making-grade-tech-professor-blends-music-coding\/587096","title":"Making the Grade: Tech Professor Blends Music, Computer Coding"},{"url":"https:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/2016\/12\/14\/musical-table-teaches-basics-computer-programming","title":"Musical Table Teaches Basics of Computer Programming"}],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1283","name":"School of Literature, Media, and Communication"}],"categories":[{"id":"143","name":"Digital Media and Entertainment"},{"id":"151","name":"Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts"}],"keywords":[{"id":"14468","name":"EarSketch"},{"id":"1616","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"362","name":"National Science Foundation"},{"id":"14469","name":"Brian Magerko"},{"id":"167943","name":"School of Literature Media and Communication"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERebecca Keane\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nDirector of Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nrebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n404.894.1720\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["rebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}