Bio

Ge Wang is an Associate Professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He specializes in the art of design and computer music — researching programming languages and interactive software design for music, interaction design, mobile music, laptop orchestras, expressive design of virtual reality, aesthetics of music technology design, and education at the intersection of computer science and music. Ge is the author of the ChucK music programming language, the founding director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk). Ge is also the Co-founder of Smule (reaching over 200 million users), and the designer of the iPhone's Ocarina and Magic Piano. Ge is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, and the author of ARTFUL DESIGN: TECHNOLOGY IN SEARCH OF THE SUBLIME—a book on design and technology, art and life‚ published by Stanford University Press in 2018 (see https://artful.design/)

Academic Appointments

Administrative Appointments

  • Associate Professor, CCRMA | Music Department, Stanford University (2017 - Present)
  • Associate Professor by courtesy, Computer Science, Stanford University (2017 - Present)
  • Faculty Fellow, Stanford Center @ Peking University (2013 - 2013)
  • Annenberg Faculty Fellow, Stanford University (2009 - 2011)
  • Assistant Professor, CCRMA | Music Department, Stanford University (2007 - 2017)
  • Assistant Professor by courtesy, Computer Science, Stanford University (2007 - 2017)
  • Instructor, Dartmouth College (2006 - 2006)
  • Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Computer Science, Princeton University (2001 - 2007)

Honors & Awards

  • Fellow, Guggenheim Foundation (2016)
  • Champion of the Arts, Cantabile Youth Singers and City of Palo Alto. (2013)
  • Emerging Pioneer Award, Independent jurors, KAPi at CES (2012)
  • Best Children’s App: Magic Piano, 11 independent jurors from over 500 products at KAPi, CES (2011)
  • App-Nation Pioneer Award, App-Nation (2010)
  • Apple Hall of Fame App: Ocarina, Apple Inc. (2010)
  • Entrepreneurs We Love, Inc. Magazine (2010)
  • The 2010 Creativity 50 Award, Creativity Magazine (2010)
  • The 2009 Creativity 50 Award (for creative thinking and doing in media, technology, and culture), Creativity Magazine (2009)
  • The Silicon Valley 40 Under 40, San Jose Business Journal (2009)
  • ICMA/Swets & Zeitlinger Distinguished Paper Award, ICMA/Swets & Zeitlinger (2006)
  • 2004 ICMA Best Presentation Award, ICMA (2004)
  • Co-winner: 2004 ACM Multimedia Best Open-Source Software Competition, ACM Multimedia (2004)
  • 2003 ICMA Best Presentation Award, ICMA (2003)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • Co-founder, Smule a mobile music startup (2008 - 2013)
  • Board Member, San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors (2011 - Present)
  • Courtesy Appointment, Stanford University Computer Science (2008 - Present)
  • Committee, Member, Stanford CS+X / CS+Music Joint Major Program (2013 - 2014)
  • Advisor, Stanford CS+Music Joint Major Program (2014 - Present)
  • Member, Stanford Music Dept. Graduate Studies Committee (2013 - Present)
  • Member, Faculty Search Committee, Stanford Music Dept. (CCRMA, Music Cognition) (2011 - 2011)
  • Member, Faculty Search Committee, Stanford Music Dept. (Ethnomusicology) (2010 - 2010)
  • Member, Faculty Search Committee, Stanford Music Dept. (Composition) (2008 - 2008)
  • Member, Program Committee, New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) (2008 - 2008)
  • Reviewer, ACM CHI (2010 - 2010)
  • Reviewer, New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) (2006 - Present)
  • Reviewer, Music Information Retrieval ISMIR (2012 - Present)
  • Reviewer, Computer Music Journal (2006 - Present)
  • Reviewer, Leonardo Music Journal (2010 - Present)
  • Reviewer, IEEE Multimedia (2007 - Present)
  • Member, Association for Computing Machinery
  • Member, International Computer Music Association
  • Member, TOPLAP (live coding organization)
  • Member, Computer Science Graduate Council (Princeton) (2002 - 2007)
  • Design and maintenance, Princeton Sound Lab site (2002 - 2007)

Program Affiliations

  • Symbolic Systems Program

Professional Education

  • Ph.D., Princeton University, Computer Science (2008)
  • M.S., Princeton University, Computer Science (2003)
  • B.S., Duke University, Computer Science (2000)

Patents

  • Ge Wang, Spencer D. Salazar, Perry R. Cook. "United States Patent 8222507 System and Method for Capturing and Rendering of Performance on Synthetic Musical Instrument", Smule

Additional Info

  • Profile:
    artful design, software design for music, mobile/social music, laptop orchestra, technology, aesthetics, and education.
  • Other Names:
    Gary Wang

Links

2019-20 Courses

Stanford Advisees

  • Doctoral Dissertation Reader (AC)
    Michael Fischer
  • Doctoral Dissertation Advisor (AC)
    Jack Atherton
  • Master's Program Advisor
    Jack Atherton, Jason Choi, Kim Kawczinski
  • Doctoral Dissertation Co-Advisor (AC)
    Doga Cavdir
  • Doctoral (Program)
    Jack Atherton, Mike Mulshine

All Publications

  • Artful Design: Technology in Search of the Sublime (A MusiComic Manifesto) Wang, G. Stanford University Press. 2018
  • Some Principles of Visual Design for Computer Music LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL Wang, G. 2016; 26: 14-19

    View details for DOI 10.1162/LMJ_a_00960

    View details for Web of Science ID 000390240400005

  • Game Design for Expressive Mobile Music New Interfaces for Musical Expression Wang, G. 2016
  • World Stage: Crowdsourcing Paradigm for Expressive Social Mobile Music JOURNAL OF NEW MUSIC RESEARCH Wang, G., Salazar, S., Oh, J., Hamilton, R. 2015; 44 (2): 112-128

    View details for DOI 10.1080/09298215.2014.991739

    View details for Web of Science ID 000361214900004

  • ChucK: A Strongly-timed Computer Music Language COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Wang, G., Cook, P. R., Salazar, S. 2015; 39 (4): 10-29

    View details for DOI 10.1162/COMJ_a_00324

  • Ocarina: Designing the iPhone's Magic Flute COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Wang, G. 2014; 38 (2): 8-21

    View details for DOI 10.1162/COMJ_a_00236

    View details for Web of Science ID 000337227100001

  • The laptop orchestra as classroom COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Wang, G., Trueman, D., Smallwood, S., Cook, P. R. 2008; 32 (1): 26-37

    View details for Web of Science ID 000253884800002

  • Mobile Music, Sensors, Physical Modeling, and Digital Fabrication: Articulating the Augmented Mobile Instrument APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL Michon, R., Smith, J., Wright, M., Chafe, C., Granzow, J., Wang, G. 2017; 7 (12)

    View details for DOI 10.3390/app7121311

    View details for Web of Science ID 000419175800107

  • Don't Forget the Laptop: Using Native Input Capabilities for Expressive Musical Control NIME READER: FIFTEEN YEARS OF NEW INTERFACES FOR MUSICAL EXPRESSION Fiebrink, R., Wang, G., Cook, P. R., Jensenius, A. R., Lyons, M. J. 2017; 3: 285–97

    View details for DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47214-0_19

    View details for Web of Science ID 000417712600020

  • On-the-Fly Programming: Using Code as an Expressive Musical Instrument NIME READER: FIFTEEN YEARS OF NEW INTERFACES FOR MUSICAL EXPRESSION Wang, G., Cook, P. R., Jensenius, A. R., Lyons, M. J. 2017; 3: 193–210

    View details for DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47214-0_13

    View details for Web of Science ID 000417712600014

  • THE LAPTOP ORCHESTRA ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO MUSIC, TECHNOLOGY, AND EDUCATION Wang, G., King, A., Himonides, E., Ruthmann, S. A. 2017: 159–69

    View details for Web of Science ID 000415752000018

  • Programming for Musician and Digital Artists: Creating Music with ChucK Kapur, A., Cook, P. R., Salazar, S., Wang, G. Manning. 2015
  • Improvisation of the Masses: Anytime, Anywhere Music. Oxford Handbook of Improvisation Studies Wang, G. Oxford University Press. 2014
  • The Mobile Phone Orchestra Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music Studies Wang, G., Essl, G., Penttinen, H. edited by Gopinath, S., Stanyek, J. Oxford University Press. 2014: 453–469
  • Principles of Visual Design for Computer Music International Computer Music Conference Wang, G. 2014
  • Auraglyph: Handwritten Computer Music Composition and Design Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. Salazar, S., Wang, G. 2014
  • The World Is Your Stage: Making Music on the iPhone Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music Studies Wang, G. edited by Gopinath, S., Stanyek, J. Oxford University Press. 2014: 487–504
  • Laughter Modulation: from Speech to Speech-Laugh Proceedings of Interspeech, ISCA Oh, J., Wang, G. 2013
  • SoundCraft: Transducing Starcraft 2 Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Cerqueira, N., Salazar, S., Wang, G. 2013
  • LOLOL: Laugh Out Loud On Laptop Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Oh, J., Wang, G. 2013
  • A Framework for Sonification of Vicon Motion Capture Data Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Audio Effects Kapur, A., Tzanetakis, G., Virji-Babul, N., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2012
  • Borderlands: An Audiovisual Interface for Granular Synthesis. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Carlson, C., Wang, G. 2012
  • Many-Person Instruments for Computer Music Performance Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Rotondo, M., Kruge, N., Wang, G. 2012
  • Chugens, Chubgraphcs, and Chugins: 3 Tiers for Extending ChucK Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Salazar, S., Wang, G. 2012
  • User-guided Variable-rate Timestretching via Stiffness Control Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Audio Effects Bryan, N., Herrera, J., Wang, G. 2012
  • Evaluating Crowd-sourcing through Amazon Mechanical Turk as a Technique for Conducting Music Perception Experiments Proceedings of the International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition Oh, J., Wang, G. 2012
  • Social Composition: Musical Data Systems for Expressive Mobile Music LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL Hamilton, R., Smith, J., Wang, G. 2011; 21: 57-64

    View details for Web of Science ID 000297438700014

  • Musical Influence Network Analysis and Rank in Sample-Based Music Proceedings of the International Conference on Music Information Retrieval Byran, N. J., Wang, G. 2011
  • Audience-participation Techniques Based on Social Mobile Computing Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Oh, J., Wang, G. 2011
  • Ge Wang: The Machine That Makes You Musical THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Walker, R. 2011
  • Breaking Barriers with Sound ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) Wang, G. 2011
  • Converge: An Omni-Biographical Composition COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL EMILE Oh, J., Wang, G. 2011; 9
  • Designing for the iPad: Magic Fiddle Wang, G., Oh, J., Lieber, T. 2011
  • Two Turntables and a Mobile Phone Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Bryan, N. J., Wang, G. 2011
  • MadPad: A Crowdsourcing System for Audiovisual Sampling Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Kruge, N., Wang, G. 2011
  • MoMu: A Mobile Music Toolkit Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Byran, N. J., Herrera, J., Oh, J., Wang, G. 2010
  • LUSH: An Organic Eco-Musical System Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Choi, H., Wang, G. 2010
  • Evolving the Mobile Phone Orchestra Oh, J., Herrera, J., Bryan, N. J., Dahl, L., Wang, G. 2010
  • Sound Bounce: Physical Metaphors in Designing Mobile Music Performance Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Dahl, L., Wang, G. 2010
  • Sonification and Visualization of Neural Data Proceedings of the International Conference on Auditory Display Chang, M. H., Wang, G., Moore, T., Berger, J. 2010
  • Smule = Sonic Media: An Intersection of the Mobile, Musical, and Social Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Essl, G., Smith, J., Salazar, S., Cook, P., Hamilton, R., Fiebrink, R., Berger, J., Zhu, D., Ljungstrom, M., Berry, A., Wu, J., Kirk, T., Berger, E., Segal, J. 2009
  • Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk). Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Bryan, N. J., Oh, J., Hamilton, R. 2009
  • Ge Wang: the iPhone’s Music Man IEEE SPECTRUM Perry, T. 2009
  • Laptop Orchestras and Machine Learning in Real-time Music Performance ACM CHI 2009, Computational Creativity Support Workshop Fiebrink, R., Cook, P., Smallwood, S., Trueman, D., Wang, G. 2009
  • Composing for laptop orchestra COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Smallwood, S., Trueman, D., Cook, P. R., Wang, G. 2008; 32 (1): 9-25

    View details for Web of Science ID 000253884800001

  • Developments and Challenges Turning Mobile Phones into Generic Music Performance Platforms Proceedings of Mobile Music Workshop Essl, G., Wang, G., Rohs, M. 2008
  • The ChucK Audio Programming Language: A Strongly-timed Environ/mentality Wang, G. Princeton University. 2008
  • A History of Programming and Music Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music Wang, G. edited by Collins, N., D'Escrivan, J. Cambridge University Press. 2008
  • Foundations for On-the-fly Learning in the ChucK Programming Language Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Fiebrink, R., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2008
  • China on the Edge: Explorations in Network-based Performance Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Arts (ARTECH) Caceres, J., Hamilton, R., Iyer, D., Chafe, C., Wang, G. 2008
  • MoPhO: Do Mobile Phones Dreams of Electric Orchestras? Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Essl, G., Pentinnen, H. 2008
  • Support for MIR Prototyping and Real-time Applications of the ChucK Programming Language Proceedings of the International Conference on Music Information Retrieval Fiebrink, R., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2008
  • Combining Analysis and Synthesis in the ChucK Programming Language Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Fiebrink, R., Cook, P. R. 2007
  • Musical Tapestry: Re-composing Natural Sounds JOURNAL OF NEW MUSIC RESEARCH Misra, A., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2007; 36 (4): 241-250

    View details for DOI 10.1080/09298210801984839

  • Don’t Forget the Laptop: Using Native Input Capabilities for Expressive Musical Control Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Fiebrink, R., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2007
  • A New Paradigm for Sound Design Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Audio Effects Misra, A., Cook, P. R., Wang, G. 2006
  • Building Collaborative interFaces in the Audicle Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Wang, G., Misra, A., Cook, P. R. 2006
  • PLOrk: Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Year 1 Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference. Trueman, D., Cook, P. R., Smallwood, S., Wang, G. 2006
  • miniAudicle and ChucK Shell: New Interfaces for ChucK Development and Performance Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Salazar, S., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2006
  • Designing and Implementing the ChucK Programming Language Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Cook, P. R., Misra, A. 2005
  • Co-Audicle: A Collaborative Audio Programming Space Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Misra, A., Davidson, P., Cook, P. R. 2005
  • SndTools: Real-time Audio DSP and 3D Visualization Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Misra, A., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2005
  • Yeah ChucK It! => Dynamic Controllable Interface Mapping Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Wang, G., Misra, A., Kapur, A., Cook, P. R. 2005
  • Interactive Network Media: A Dream Worth Dreaming Organised Sound Misra, A., Wang, G., Davidson, P., Cook, P. 2005; 10 (3): 209-219
  • On-the-fly Programming: Using Code as an Expressive Musical Instrument Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2004
  • Audicle: A Context-sensitive, On-the-fly Audio Programming Environ/mentality Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2004
  • ChucK: A Programming Language for On-the-fly, Realtime Audio Synthesis and Multimedia Proceedings of ACM Multimedia Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2004
  • ChucK: A Concurrent, On-the-fly Audio Programming Language Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2003