Seed Grants

2019 Seed Grant Awarded

September 03, 2019
Darcy Kelley and Ursula Kwong-Brown

The Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience (PSSN) program awards Seed Grants to support interdisciplinary projects that lie at the intersection of neuroscience, the humanities, and the social sciences. This year, PSSN has awarded funding to Darcy Kelley, Harold Weintraub Professor of Biological Sciences, and musician and researcher Ursula Kwong-Brown, whose project will utilize a highly-sensitive wristband that captures EMG signals to generate music. Over the course of one year, Dr. Kelley and Dr. Kwong-Brown will develop, program, and pilot the wristband into an interface that can be used to control multiple musical variables (instrument type, ranges of notes, keys, chords, etc.) with limited bodily movement.  The project will culminate in a public event, including a live performance of a newly composed piece of music using the wristband and interface, and a discussion with scientists and musicians. 

PROJECT TITLE: Multimodal Instrument Design: Exploring the Limits of Neural Activity to Generate Music

  • Darcy Kelley, Harold Weintraub Professor of Biological Sciences, Columbia University
  • Ursula Kwong-Brown, Senior Research Staff, Kelley Laboratory, Columbia University