The URECA website regularly features students’ perspectives on research and/or creative activities. This month’s student is Jay Loomis, a music major (class of 2015), and recipient of the inaugural Angela and Dexter Bailey URECA award, which supported his summer research on “Real-Time Auditory Feedback for Persons with Parkinson’s Disease: Overcoming Akinesia with Music.” This interdisciplinary project involved Margaret Schedel and Daniel Weymouth from the Department of Music and the Consortium for Digital Arts, Culture and Technology (cDACT); and Lisa Muratori, Erin Vasudevan and Peter Marcote from the Physical Therapy Department. The goal of the project is to use sonification to develop individual auditory cues based on gait specific motion analysis data – and to use the information in a biofeedback system so that individuals with Parkinson’s Disease can use external sound cues to self-correct impaired gait patterns. The team presented its initial research on the interdisciplinary project as a poster at the Music, Mind, Meaning Conference at Johns Hopkins University this past January. Jay also presented a poster at URECA’s undergraduate poster symposium this past April.
At Stony Brook, Jay has worked as an events coordinator at the Craft Center, has interned/volunteered at the Freedom School in Summers 2013 and 2014, and has been involved with SBU theater productions and numerous music performances. From 2009 to the present, Jay has worked part-time as a care provider at an AHRC group home for adults with developmental disabilities, an experience that prepared him well for the current research project. He is also a recipient of the Arthur Lambert Memorial Scholarship for a music student.
Last fall, Jay co-performed and presented alongside Tim Vallier a composition called “Limbic Hemispheres” at the TEDxSBU conference (see video below). With wide-ranging interests in sonification, music therapy, ethnomusicology, jazz and instrument construction, Jay plans to apply for PhD programs in musicology or ethnomusicology.
Click here for the full interview.
Click here for past Researchers of the Month.
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