Dr Robin Laney

Professor Of Computational Musicology

robin.laney@open.ac.uk

Biography

Professional biography

Robin is a Professor of Computational Musicology at the Open University. He has a BSc. in Micro-computers and Applications from Westfield College, University of London, and a PhD. In Computer Science from King’s College, University of London.

Robin is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He pursues an active programme of public engagement, largely through Speakers for Schools, but is also happy to consider direct invitations.

Research interests

Robin has a background in software engineering, but much of his work is in Music Computing. He is interested in how music works and why it is so significant as a human activity. His team is exploring this through two approaches:

1) Computational Musicology - What can pattern matching and statistical approaches tell us about the content of music?

2) Human-AI Collaborative Systems that allow mixed-ability groups to make music in a meaningful and intentional manner.

An overview of some of his work on AI, music and creativity can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m3Pd6FOx6Y

A short video on Open Melody, a human-AI collaborative creative music tool his team has produced, can be found here:

https://ordo.open.ac.uk/articles/media/Demo_of_Open_Melody/13100039

The tool is available as a Web app here:

https://openmelody.co.uk/OpenMelody.htm

A similar piece of software as a Processing sketch, is freely available at:

https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.rd.13079081

Robin is a core member of the AHRC-funded research network Datasounds, datasets and datasense: Unboxing the hidden layers between musical data, knowledge and creativity.

Robin has supervised 17 PhD students to successful completion, both in Software Engineering and various topics within Music Computing. He is always keen to hear from perspective PhD students, whether for full or part-time distance study. More generally, he is happy to answer any questions on his research, whether from academics or the general public.

Teaching interests

Robin was production chair of M363, a level 3 course in software engineering, where he took a new approach to teaching software requirements and introduced a strongly case-study based pedagogy. His more recent involvement is with TM112 Introduction to Computing and IT 2, where with colleagues he revised the OU's approach to teaching programming so that problem-solving is foregrounded over syntax.

Impact and engagement

Robin is active in public engagement, largely through Speakers for Schools, but is also happy to consider direct invitations.

Other engagement includes activities on stands at:

External collaborations

Robin is co-editor of the Journal of Creactive Music Systems.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Projects

STFC CDT DISCNET 2

The DISCnet vision is to train the Data Science Leaders of the future. DISCnet accelerates the pace of scientific discovery in the understanding of our Universe and its fundamental particles through the application of cutting-edge Data Intensive Science. Our centre attracts top students from the physical sciences, and develops them into innovators adept at working in academic and commercial environments, equipped with enviable technical skills, and armed with the full appreciation of uncertainty in decision-making applications that comes from a rigorous scientific background. This enables them to lead disruptive change, potentially transforming sectors of the economy to position the UK at the forefront of the global data revolution. Their diverse and inclusive career network facilitates a life-long capability to develop themselves and to influence others. We have established DISCnet as a national hub of research excellence across three world-class universities, embedded within a global network of premier scientific facilities, and with an industrial placement programme that will directly connect innovation in computational science and fundamental physics to the UK economy.