Imagine your diary entries transformed into short pieces of music that encapsulate your emotions with just a few taps. The 2023 Innovation Awards (INA) winning project could do just that when it becomes an app.
INA — a design thinking incubator program founded in 2017 by the Steering Committee, Jin Kawata, Joey Lee, and Yoo Kyung Chang Communication, Media and Learning Technology Design Program (CMLTD) As part of the TC EdTech initiative– Bring together students from Teachers College and Columbia University and ask them to imagine research-backed EdTech solutions to various problems in the world. After six weeks of whirlwind, a winning project is born. Project aMuse is an AI-powered music journaling app with an adorable cat assistant inspired by the design team’s desire to help young people express themselves.
Members of the winning team (composed of Dora Zhang, Jianan Liang, Shiyue Peng, Yolanda Xing and Xichen Li) sat down with TC to discuss the big achievements from INA’s hectic process.
To make real progress, the team had to look inward
Students found their mission during the first brainstorm. How can we help young people express themselves? Each member of the team worked on this problem individually, but when it came time to work towards a solution, problems arose. This was partly because each of them had a deep interest in this issue.
“People have different understandings of what it means to express themselves and what it means to make music,” says Dora. This made it difficult to narrow the focus of the project and choose a single direction. It wasn’t until her fourth week that the team found a solid footing by considering where their skills and users’ needs intersected. “That’s what we learned,” says Gianan. “
Their experience at INA gave them a new approach to communication
Getting ready for the Project aMuse presentation required a new kind of teamwork for each member. As Yolanda points out, teamwork can involve more than just putting ideas together, it involves persuading and choosing one perspective over another. And throughout the process, each team member realized that crossing the finish line required more flexible and effective communication.
That was the biggest lesson for Shichen, the team’s chief scientist. By the end of the project, she had amassed 40 to 50 pages of her research, but especially since she continued her research until the deadline, she said, “It’s very difficult to pass on ideas from academia to your teammates.” difficult,” she felt. By the end of her INA, she was able to encourage her to share her own ideas, but she said, “It’s better to pass them on little by little so people can understand.” said. [the research]’, the team would have agreed sooner.
Other team members, such as Jianan, have had to learn how to go with the flow and learn from surprises. By letting go of some control, she “learned to understand others more and try to find possible connections between people’s ideas.” I felt the need to take more control, rather than being dictated by Because “it’s so important to work with each other instead of waiting for someone to assign a job,” she says.
Creation of project aMuse gave team members new insights into themselves and their work
By winning INA, each member of the team had a new appreciation for music, AI, and product design. A few members are particularly interested in iterative continuations of project aMuse.
Instead of focusing on self-expression, Yolanda wants to use aMuse to explore ways to make songwriting less burdensome. A music novice, she wants to use AI as a scaffold to teach users the basics of songwriting. But Yolanda is still in her early stages of exploration. She said, “It’s another thing to turn all theory into design. It’s just another thing.”
Dora also wants to continue working with INA, ideally working with Yolanda. She says that doing this project helped her “regain faith in the power of design” and learned the importance of design decision-making in research and learning theory. She hasn’t continued her work on Project aMuse, but is also researching the potential of AI as a treatment facilitator, but says, “Although we’re looking for ways to make interfaces more user-friendly, , it is the most meaningful way to facilitate learning.” experience. “
Taking a slightly skeptical approach, Xichen’s desire to continue working on Project aMuse stems from her curiosity and concern about whether music production and performance can really move online. She feels that “the power of music comes from the space in which it is played,” but that said, Ms. Shicheng deeply enjoys the subject. Perhaps most amazingly, doing her INA inspired her to consider becoming her music therapist. She was always grateful to her therapist, but she had told herself it was out of her reach. “But after this project, she realized that if you work on something you really love, you can accomplish the impossible,” she says.
