Meet the Robotics Team

Ryan Nikolaidis and Shimon perform together.

Gil Weinberg

The founder and director of Georgia Tech's Center for Music Technology, Gil Weinberg, PhD, conceived the concept of robotic musicianship in 2006 with the development of Haile—the world's first robotic musician. Other platforms that Gil has utilized for his musical innovations include cell phones, toys, and aquariums. Gil's research focuses on expanding musical expression, creativity, and learning through innovative new technology. He is currently working on new compositions for Shimon that will be featured in an international concert tour during fall 2010.

Guy Hoffman

Guy Hoffman designed Shimon's socially expressive head and control mechanism while working as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Music Technology. His award-winning research investigates practice, anticipation, timing, and joint action between humans and robots, as well as non-humanoid robot design. Dr. Hoffman currently serves as a faculty member and co-director of the Media Innovation Lab at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliyah in his home country of Israel.

Ryan Nikolaidis

The first Music Technology PhD student at Georgia Tech, Ryan's research spreads across fields as varied as music intelligence, improvisation, and sonification to brain research. As part of his work on Shimon, Ryan developed an application that allows the robot to learn from previous performances by the great jazz masters and improvise in a style reflecting this knowledge.

Roberto Aimi, Alium Labs

Alium Labs offers universities, artists, and research labs technical consulting and development services as well as custom robot design and construction. Roberto received his master's and PhD from the MIT Media Laboratory.