November 05, 2007 — Prof. Elaine Chew attended The invitation-only Japan-America Frontiers of Engineering (JAFOE) symposium on  November 5-7. Hosted by HP laboratories in Palo Alto, the meeting brings together outstanding early career (ages 30-45) engineers from U.S. and Japan universities, research labs, and industry.  The JAFOE event is organized by the US National Academy of Engineering, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and the Engineering Academy of Japan.

Apart from the topical sessions (including topics ranging from human computer interfaces to bio-materials to batteries), all participants (speakers and attendees) also presented posters on their work.   Prof. Chew received the Best Poster Session Presenter Award at the JAFOE meeting for her poster titled "The Shape of Musical Structure."  One  award was presented to  each of the US and the Japanese groups.  Both winners were recognized by NAE President Charles Vest, the Japan Science and Technology Agency Executive Director, Fumiaki Takahasi, and EAJ President Tsuneo Nakahara.

Prof. Chew reports strong support for a music-engineering session  she  proposed in 2004, and she is hopeful that a future JAFOE symposium will feature a session on music.   Before flying back to Boston, Prof. Chew gave two talks at Stanford  University -- one to undergraduates of the Mathematical and Computational Sciences (MCS) program on how  her  undergraduate research with George Dantzig later influenced  her  work in music and computing, and one at the Hearing Seminar at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics  that was attended by several notable researchers in music cognition and music visualization)