High school students explore engineering through music and computer science

Over 40 rising Junior and Senior high school students from the Ann Arbor area got a crash course in computing and its connections to creativity at a College of Engineering computer science class during the week of June 16.

Entitled “It’s All About the Music,”the camp focused on exploring computer science in the context of real-world problems and applications through challenging, hands-on, and music-centric applications.

During the camp, students learned to solder and build small circuit boards and worked with computer science applications, movie making, and recording equipment to create digital music, computer graphics, and movies. The students also had the opportunity to visit the sound lab in the Duderstadt center, where they were able to play and record instruments and learn about he technology behind music recording and editing.

The camp, which is being led by Dr. David Chesney of Computer Science and Engineering and run in large part by U-M engineering students, is being repeated later in the summer in Detroit.

Dr. Chesney and the camp organizers hope that the camp will open students’ eyes to ways in which their passions such as music are interconnected and influenced by STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields such as computer science.

It’s All About the Music is organized and administered by the Office of Student Affairs. Funding for the camps was provided by Warner Music’s Alternative Distribution Alliance.