Core SysMus17 Hosting Committee
Peter Harrison, Scientific Committee Chair
I’m a PhD student at Queen Mary, University of London, working in the Music Cognition Lab with Marcus Pearce. My academic background is in mathematics, music, psychology and neuroscience, and I’m also a keen practising musician, specialising in classical piano and organ performance. Currently my main academic work focuses on the computational modelling of harmony. I’m also interested in individual differences in musical abilities, and have developed a series of adaptive musical listening tests as part of the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) test battery.
Sarah Sauvé, SysMus17 Chair
Originally from Canada, I have been living in the UK for just over three years now, having completed the MMB master’s programme at Goldsmiths and now in the third and last year of my PhD in QM’s Music Cognition Lab. My research interests include expectation, attention, timbre perception and musical training and I’m currently working on expanding the IDyOM model for melody extraction in polyphonic music. Outside of my studies, I’m highly involved in CISV, an international peace education charity, enjoy walking along waterways of the UK, drinking tea and baking.
Katie Rose Sanfilippo, Social Bonding Wizard
Originally 
from the Bay Area California, I completed my undergraduate degrees from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. As valedictorian of my class I was awarded a BA in music with an emphasis in vocal performance and choral conducting and another BA in general psychology. I completed my MSc in Music, Mind and Brain at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2015 where I was interested in the effects of improvisation on social bonding in group singing. With a rooted interest in music and health I am currently a PhD student at Goldsmiths under the supervision for Prof. Lauren Stewart and Prof. Vivette Glover. I am looking at music as a clinical intervention to reduce anxiety and depression in pregnant women. I am also working part-time as a research assistant at Nordoff Robbins, a music therapy charity in London.
Pedro Douglass-Kirk, IT Extraordinaire
I am undertaking a funded studentship at Goldsmiths University of London researching musical aids for stroke rehabilitation after completing the MSc in Music Mind and Brain. I have been working within a highly interdisciplinary group between the Psychology and Computing Departments at Goldsmiths developing and evaluating digital musical instruments (DMIs) for stroke rehabilitation. Our project received international recognition by being awarded first prize in the student research competition at the CHI 2015 human computer interaction conference in Seoul, Korea.
Marcus Pearce, SysMus17 Supervisor
Educated in experimental psychology and artificial intelligence at Oxford and Edinburgh, Marcus Pearce received his PhD from City, University of London in 2005, before continuing as a post-doctoral research fellow at Goldsmiths and University College London. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Sound and Music Processing at Queen Mary University of London where he is leader of the Music Cognition Lab, director of the EEG Laboratory and co-director of the cross-faculty Centre for Mind in Society. His research interests cover computational, psychological and neuroscientific aspects of music cognition, with a particular focus on dynamic, predictive processing of melodic, rhythmic and harmonic structure, and its impact on emotional and aesthetic experience. He is the author of the IDyOM model of auditory expectation based on statistical learning and probabilistic prediction.
Scientific Committee
Agata Zelechowska
Angel Faraldo
Anja-Xiaoxing Cui
Anthony Chmiel
Brooke Okada
Cárthach Ó Nuanáin
Cory Meals
Daniel Fiedler
David Baker
Fabian Moss
Georgios Diapoulis
Gesine Wermke
Hayley Trower
Helena Dukic
Jason Noble
Jessica Crich
Juan Ignacio Mendoza Garay
Jun Jiang
Katie Rose Sanfilippo
Keith Phillips
Kelly Whiteford
Landon Peck
Manuel Anglada Tort
Marco Susino
Michaela Korte
Moe Touizrar
Montserrat Pàmies-Vilà
Mylène Gioffredo
Nerdinga Letule
Noah Little
Olivia Podolak
Raluca Matei
Riza Veloso
Savvas Kazazis
Scott Bannister
Steffen Herff
Suzanne Ross
Tejaswinee Kelkar
Ulf Holbrook
SysMus17 volunteer team – to be announced!
Contact the committee if you are interested in volunteering @ SysMus17 (sysmus17@gmail.com).