Imparting knowledge and skills at the forefront of interdisciplinary research - A case study on course design at the intersection of music and engineering

This paper presents a constructivist approach to advanced course development in an interdisciplinary field by focusing on a case study at the intersection of music and engineering. Engineering approaches to music modeling and cognition is a fast growing and rapidly evolving focus of study due to the explosion of digital music information. The challenges (of designing a course to impart the expertise necessary to innovate at the forefront of the field include the lack of a formal body of scholarly knowledge in the form of a text, the lack of formal structures to support the course in the traditional disciplinary framework, the relatively small number of students with suitably strong backgrounds in both computing and music, and misconceptions about the nature of music research. The paper describes how these obstacles were surmounted. An outcome of the course was dissemination of organized knowledge and example projects through the web as a resource for the community.