Music informatics lecturer to receive Sussex Teaching Excellence Award
Dr Nick Collins, programme leader for the music informatics degrees at Sussex, is to receive a University of Sussex Teaching Excellence Award for 2012. He was nominated by a group of more than a dozen students, who cited such qualities as stimulating and inspiring teaching, outstanding support for students in their academic development, and an all round knowledge of the computer music field.
Two of the students commented:
"Nick always shows real world, practical examples of how things are used. I have never been as challenged in my life as I have with Nick's computer music classes. The desire to make something cool (and cooler) than what already exists really pushes students to the limits of their understanding..."
"I would call Nick a polymath. He seems to know the most intricate details of every subject, especially coding environments, music, sound and audio theory. He is clearly one of Sussex's finest lecturers and research contributors"
The music informatics degrees at Sussex are a collaboration between the Music and Informatics (Computing) Departments, involving an exciting combination of the study of music with computer programming. Module topics include music creation and analysis, electronic music, computer music, studio recording, interactive multimedia, and computer science. The degree particularly focusses on developing creative skills that improve employability across both the arts and computing sectors, and go far beyond those addressed in a standard music technology degree. More details are available at Music Informatics BA/ BSc
As an academic, Dr Nick Collins is a specialist in the field of computer music, active in research, composition and performance. His research interests include machine listening, music information retrieval, interactive and generative music, and the musicology of electronic music. He co-edited the Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music (Cambridge University Press 2007) and The SuperCollider Book (MIT Press, 2011), and wrote the Introduction to Computer Music (Wiley 2009). He has developed iPhone apps including RISCy, TOPLAPapp, Concat, BBCut - and PhotoNoise for iPad. He performs worldwide as a laptopist, and in recitals for piano and electronics. More information about his activities is available here.