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ECE professor designs easy music creation software

June 10, 2014 - By Karen Wentworth

Can you learn to make music if you’ve never had any musical training? Bandojo LLC, a startup using technology developed by UNM Research Assistant Professor Panaiotis in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is betting you won’t be able to resist the temptation. Bandojo has developed a software program you can download now on your iPhone or iPad. You can play alone or with friends, no matter what age you are.

The software is being offered both to the consumer market and to institutions. The enterprise version is now used primarily on iPad and personal computer running Windows or Mac OS. It’s targeted toward education as well as to therapeutics for adults and children. For example, Adelante Development Center, a Bandojo institutional client, provides support services for over 900 differently-abled New Mexicans, including those with intellectual and physical disabilities, neuromuscular diseases, disabled veterans, and the elderly. Another Bandojo client, Covenant Schools early learning center, serves typically developing preschool students.

"With preschool students, the staff uses Bandojo in activities that reinforce basic lessons, story time, and naptime as well as music exploration," CEO Travis Kellerman said. "We're developing activities to advance the curriculum. Bandojo can also be used to create music collaboratively, which is a great lesson for kids. We want to start now with elementary schools as the next step and move onward to middle and high school levels."

Kellerman says that in a future version, Bandojo will also offer cloud-based music collaboration. "It's not too late at any age to engage with music, and this is a new way that it can be done," he said.

For the consumer market, along with Bandojo for iOS, Panaiotis developed Bandojo Pro for desktop and laptop computer. This version supports playing in groups of up to 16 networked devices. Musical creations can be recorded, which means users can develop soundtracks for their videos, record improvisational sessions with friends or record the solos they play.

Preview a Demonstration
Bandojo creator Panaiotis is a composer, performer and music educator who has toured worldwide and created many interactive musical performances with professional musicians as well as amateurs of all ages. He created the software underlying Bandojo in order to study fundamental harmony. This developed into a software musical instrument he uses for composition and performance. Bandojo is a simpler musical instrument with a user interface designed to be as accessible and easy to use as possible. "For me, music and technology are passions that develop in parallel," Panaiotis said.

The company is also looking at other ways to use technology and music. Panaiotis has developed a way to communicate data using musification in a work setting.

"Think of an intensive care unit," Panaiotis said, "The changing patterns of music will provide vital signs to a nurse or doctor. It will be pleasant to listen to, but will also provide audio cues to alert staff to the patient’s condition. This will reduce the stress from listening to alarm sounds during a long shift. It will reduce stress on the patients, too."

Panaiotis is also working with the UNM engineering center Configurable Space Microsystems Innovations & Applications Center (COSMIAC) on a way to provide a musical application that will allow them to monitor routine satellite data.

The company licensed the technology through STC.UNM, the technology transfer and economic development arm at UNM. STC.UNM works with UNM researchers to connect them with the business community. In this instance, Panaiotis is a research professor, and Kellerman is an Anderson School of Management business graduate who is working to build Bandojo’s business. They work directly with Erin Beaumont, STC Innovation Manager. She can be reached at 505.272.7912 or ebeaumont@stc.unm.edu.

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