Pete Rice--Music Software Development and Design

Hailing from Balboa Island in sunny, Southern California, Pete Rice thought he'd given up everything when he arrived at MIT as a freshman. After four years of brain-bending education, however, this beach-bum-turned-computer-programmer finally realized that Boston did have some fine micro-breweries. Despite the best efforts of the professors in his major, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Pete never forgot his first passion, music. Whether by playing guitar in a band or by designing interactive music systems for Professor Tod Machover at the Media Lab, Pete has always kept music as a large part of his life. Before joining the Brain Opera team, Pete had designed software for several other projects with Professor Machover, including the spatial music experience in RVox cubedS and the Sensor Chair for Penn and Teller. In the Brain Opera, Pete faces his most ambitious design challenge yet, with primary responsibilities for the music software in the Performance space as well Harmonic Driving and the Gesture Wall. At some time during this process, Pete will begin as a Master's student at the MIT Media Lab studying under Professor Machover. Pete's goal in life is to continue making big, high-tech performance experiences in a variety of musical styles that will "blow people away." He hopes one day to actually get paid for doing this so he can afford to buy better beer.