David’s career began with his studies at Drexel University, where he worked in the Music & Entertainment Technology Laboratory (MET-Lab) and the Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies (EXCITE) Center as an undergraduate research assistant from 2006-2010 and then a graduate student researcher from 2010-2014. Much of his work at this time was in the fields of Music Information Retrieval and humanoid robotics. Some of his significant projects at this point included the development of beat tracking and mood estimation algorithms for robots, the creation of an app that could follow along with an orchestral performance in order to present contextual information to users, and the development of dancing robots.
After leaving Drexel, David became a postdoctoral research fellow at two Singaporean institutions: the National University of Singapore (NUS) from 2014-2017 and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) from 2017-2019. While at NUS, David worked in the Sound and Music Computing (SMC) Laboratory, primarily focusing on using digital signal processing and Music Information Retrieval technologies to enhance e-Health and e-Learning outcomes. For instance, he helped develop a system that would use a music recommendation engine to provide music that motivated specific users to exercise, and he also worked on a system that analyzed the pronunciation of lyrics sung by second-language learners so those students could know if they had learned the correct pronunciations. During his time at SUTD, David was primarily focused on the task of emotion recognition in music.
In addition to his projects at Drexel, NUS, and SUTD, David attended other research institutions during his studies. In 2009 he was at the Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (KAIST) for six months, working with humanoid robots in the Hubo Lab. And in 2012 he performed research in the Czech Technical University (CTU)’s Center for Machine Perception for two months.
After returning to the states, David designed digital signal processing algorithms for Secret Chord Laboratories, a music technology startup which aims to revolutionize the music industry by quantifying the contributions of specific musical elements to a song’s overall popularity. David’s contributions including the creation of new acoustic features and the development of algorithms to analyze the perceptual contributions of those features.
David is currently working at L3Harris, a prominent defense contractor. David is an engineer in the company’s communications and analysis division, and his work includes the development of signal processing and machine learning technologies to support the company’s products.
A full CV is available for download here.