Monique Dalton

Team Secretary, Team Web-Designer

Monique is an Electrical Engineering student. She has studied piano for about ten years and loves playing her piano and singing. She loves being involved in A.O.E. (the professional engineering sorority on campus), especially in philanthropic events such as Terp Thon. She also loves watching movies and spending time with her family. Her favorite artists are Shakira, Imogen Heap, Juanes and Katy Perry. She is excited to be a part of a team dedicated to the advancement of music recommendation technologies.

Ethan Ferraro

Team Library Liaison

Ethan is a Materials Science and Engineering major, with a specialization in Soft Materials and Biomaterials. Although he has not formally studied music since high school, he is an avid fan. This project excites him because it presents a unique opportunity to explore the effects of discrete musical phenomena on human musical perception. In addition to his work with the Gemstone Program, he also co-hosts a radio show with Mike Robinson through WMUC.

Meg Galuardi

Team Treasurer

Meg Galuardi is a Civil Engineering major with a concentration in Transportation and Project Management. After graduation she plans to work on traffic system analysis. Indie pop and film scores are her go to music. She is happy to be a part of the team because it gives her an opportunity to do research on one of her interests outside of her field.

Andrew Gast

Andrew is studying Computer Science and Mathematics at UMD. Gemstone Team MUSIC is a major part of his academic life, it being his primary research commitment. He is very eager to contribute to this project and see its goals achieved, since it is a combination of two of his passions: computer science and music. His music tastes are eclectic, encompassing classical, heavy metal, hip hop, indie rock, and harsh noise, of course.

Mike Robinson

Mike is a Chemistry and Psychology major. He is excited to work on this project because he has been interested in musical signal processing for a while, and he has recently taken an interest in working with music through computers. He has listened to a very wide variety of music from an early age. Some of his current favorite artists are milo, Igorrr, and The Antlers.

Abby Stauffer

Abby is a Physiology/Neurobiology major and Music Performance minor. She plays violin in the University of Maryland Repertoire Orchestra, and enjoys listening to classical music. She also mentors elementary school students in the America Reads*America Counts program. Abby joined Team MUSIC primarily due to her interest in music, and is excited to be able to help develop a new method for music recommendation. She hopes Team MUSIC’s research will provide insightful contributions to the field of music information retrieval.

Mack Walls

Team Gemstone Liaison

Mackenzie, or Mack, is majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, with a minor in Engineering Leadership Development. Mack hopes to pursue a career in R&D focusing on the production of biochemicals. He has been involved with multiple organizations on campus, including the Mighty Sound of Maryland, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Primannum Honor Society. In his free time, Mack loves listening to music; he is an avid fan of many rock genres, with interest in bands ranging from Yes to fun.

Dr. Ramani Duraiswami

Team Mentor

Ramani Duraiswami is a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has broad research interests in a number of areas including scientific computing, spatial audio, machine learning and computer vision. He has a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins and a B.Tech. from IIT Bombay. For more information see here.

Steve Henry

Team Librarian

Steve Henry has been Interim Head of the the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library since November 2013. He also continues to serve as Music Librarian, a role he has held since August of 2007. He holds masters degrees in Library and Information Studies and in Music Theory from the University of Wisconsin--Madison. Steve is active nationally in the music librarianship profession. He currently serves as chair of the Music Library Association's Emerging Technologies and Services Committee and is Digital Media Reviews editor for the association's journal, Notes.