Welcome!

We are an undergraduate research team from the University of Maryland Gemstone Honors Program. Our research is dedicated to creating a music recommendation system that accurately represents a user’s musical preferences. Our name, MUSIC, or Methodology of Understanding Songs by Incorporating Computers, gives some insight to our interests. In response to the high number of recommendation engines that lack a bridge between a mathematical model and perceptual model, we propose a numerical analysis of qualities and trends within a specific listener’s song list. Our research’s importance stems from the need to customize a recommendation system to an individual user, in order to account for factors that cannot be captured by the numerical similarity of songs. We want the perception model to be tailored to the listener.

Our Team including our Team Librarian. From Left to Right (seated): Meg Galuardi, Mack Walls, and Monique Dalton. From Left to Right (standing): Mike Robinson, Steve Henry, Abby Stauffer, and Andrew Gast.

News!

Back to school again! Time for an update on one of our summer activities:

"We had an amazing experience at the SMPC conference in Nashville earlier this month! Not only were we able to share our project during our poster presentation but we also learned from many experienced researchers..."

See the Blog page for the rest! Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook ”Team MUSIC” and Twitter “@gemsteammusic”.

Fall 2015

New Blog post!:

”Hi everyone! We are sorry that it’s been awhile since our last post but we’re excited to update you on our exciting news! First, our LaunchUMD campaign was a huge success. We were able to raise $4,100!...”

See the Blog page for the rest! Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook ”Team MUSIC” and Twitter “@gemsteammusic”.

Spring 2015

Exciting blog post! Check it out:

”Hey everyone! Our Launch UMD page goes live TOMORROW (Monday Feb. 23rd)! We are very excited and hope to have your support for our campaign. You will be able to access our Launch UMD page at https://www.launch.umd.edu/teammusic....”

See the Blog page for the rest! Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook ”Team MUSIC”, Twitter “@gemsteammusic”, and our Launch UMD page https://www.launch.umd.edu/teammusic (available tomorrow!).

Winter 2015

Blog Post #6! We submitted our abstract!:

”Here’s Team MUSIC, back with another blog update. First off, we have submitted our abstract to SMPC, so we’re eagerly waiting to hear back from them. If the Society accepts our proposal, then we will be able to present at their conference this summer...”

See the Blog page for the rest! Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook ”Team MUSIC”, Twitter “@gemsteammusic”, and our Launch UMD page soon to be live.

Winter 2015

Blog Post #5! Preview below:

”Hello! We hope everyone is enjoying their spring semester so far. First off, we would like to give a huge thank you to Dr. Jason Rentfrow, who has been very helpful in answering all of our questions....”

See the Blog page for the rest! Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook ”Team MUSIC” and Twitter “@gemsteammusic”.

Winter 2015

Another blog post update! Here’s a quick preview:

”Good news, everyone! Our Launch UMD application has been approved, and we are preparing for fundraising our conference trip! We’re currently filming a video...”

See the Blog page for the rest! Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook ”Team MUSIC” and Twitter “@gemsteammusic”.

Winter 2015

We published our third blog post! Take a peek below:

”We hope everyone had a great winter break! As we approach the upcoming spring semester, we’re making preparations for our initial online survey. This survey will help us learn...”

See the Blog page for the rest! Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook ”Team MUSIC” and Twitter “@gemsteammusic”.

Winter 2015

We published our second blog post! Take a peek below:

”Hi everyone! Team MUSIC here with another update. Our Launch UMD application is currently under review, so we expect to start our fundraising campaign in the near future. Our trip to the Society of Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC) conference...”

See the Blog page for the rest! Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook ”Team MUSIC” and Twitter “@gemsteammusic”.

Winter 2015

We started a blog! Our updates will be under the Blog tab. If you are interested, you can also follow us on Facebook on our page ”Team MUSIC” and Twitter “@gemsteammusic”. Take a peek at our first blog post below:

”Hi everyone! As you may have noticed, our website is undergoing reconstruction in response to our updated methodology. The plan for us this upcoming semester is to correlate features from Rentfrow’s five-factor cognitive music model with those of Echo Nest (an application programming interface) for a novel way of organizing music...”

See the Blog page for the rest!

Winter 2015

Our focus groups this October were a success! Thank you to everyone who volunteered! Thanks to you we now have more information about listeners’ perceptions of music and opinions of current music recommendation systems. We will no longer be accepting participants at this time.

Fall 2014

We received the The Donald and Katherine Buxton Award for Research Excellence presented by the Maryland University Libraries. We were awarded this honor on the basis of our Thesis Proposal and Presentation from The Inaugural Libraries Gemstone Award Program. We are proud to be recognized as one of the top three Gemstone teams this year and we thank Friends of the Libraries for their generous support.

Spring 2014