Two Music Technology graduate students have been awarded scholarships through the Audio Engineering Society Educational Foundation (AESEF). The recipients are Aizhou (Amy) Liu for the Genelec Mike Chafee Audio Pioneering Scholarship and Gregor McWilliam for the Genelec Dr. Ilpo Martikainen Audio Visionary Scholarship.
The Genelec Mike Chafee Audio Pioneering Scholarship was established to promote the advancement of women in the audio industry. Prior to studying at NYU Steinhardt, Liu graduated Magna Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music where she studied Contemporary Writing & Production.
Liu, who is a bilingual composer and songwriter, combines her passions for composition and audio technology. She hopes to bring her knowledge of advanced audio technology back to China, her homeland.
Liu remarked, “It is truly an honor to be chosen for the prestigious Genelec Mike Chafee Audio Pioneering Scholarship. I am thrilled to continue to grow as an audio engineer and music technologist for the remainder of my education at NYU Steinhardt. I look to combine cutting-edge technology with my creative and composing background. I am excited to become a leader in the audio community and to empower other women through my work.”
The Genelec Dr. Ilpo Martikainen Audio Visionary Scholarship is granted to students who have a passion of advancing audio through innovation and technology development. McWilliam specializes in software engineering, spatial audio, and digital signal processing. He is also currently interning at MediaTek, a leading semiconductor company.
McWilliam said, “The scholarship will assist greatly in the pursuit of my research at NYU. The COVID-19 pandemic, which began just months before I was due to begin my studies in New York, resulted in a widespread shift to remote work, highlighting both the incredible utility and tiresome shortcomings of many online communication platforms. Consequently, much of my research is currently driven by the possibilities for improving human interaction with and through technology, removing many of the limitations we have largely come to accept."