S. Alex Ruthmann

S. Alex Ruthmann is Professor of Interactive Media and Business at NYU Shanghai and Professor (Associated) of Music Technology and Music Education in the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at NYU Steinhardt. He is the Founder and Director of the NYU Music Experience Design Lab (MusEDLab), and serves as affiliate faculty in the NYU Shanghai Program on Creativity and Innovation, the Interactive Media Arts Low-Residency Global Master of Arts Program (NYU Tisch / NYU Shanghai), and the Learning Technology and Experience Design Program at NYU Steinhardt. He also serves as an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland, Australia. He previously served as Area Head of Interactive Media and Business at NYU Shanghai (2021–2026) and as Program Director of Music Education at NYU Steinhardt (2017–2018).

As Area Head, Ruthmann led the strategic expansion of the Interactive Media and Business program from 12 to nearly 100 majors serving more than 800 students annually, grew its full-time faculty from 3 to 12, and directed the program’s comprehensive Academic Program Review and curriculum redesign (2024–2025). He is co-creator of the NYU Shanghai Minor in Creativity and Innovation. His university service has included chairing multiple faculty searches at NYU Shanghai, membership on the NYU Shanghai Institutional Review Board and the NYU Conflict of Interest Advisory Committee, and chairing the Academic Affairs Committee of the NYU Steinhardt Faculty Council.

Ruthmann’s current research centers on AI and creative learning through the arts with a focus on music, media, and intangible cultural heritage. At NYU Shanghai, he leads applied projects in AI and creative learning in China, working with cultural and educational institutions including the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Traditional Chinese Orchestra, and Shanghai Open University, as well as with schools, and with creative technology and education startups.  This work extends into his teaching of AI for Creative Learning in the Interactive Media Arts Low-Residency MA and his service on the advisory committee of the Center for Data Science at NYU Shanghai. His broader research portfolio includes a US National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab award with the New World Symphony on sustainable entrepreneurship in classical music training, the DigiSus participatory design project in Norway, and the Notio Project in Finland, and service as Outstanding Educator in Residence focusing on arts technologies and learning with the Singapore Ministry of Education.

Alex’s China-based efforts build on the NYU Music Experience Design Lab in NYC where he has worked closely with industry partners, media startup accelerators, and community partners including the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, Peter Gabriel, the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, UNESCO, the League of American Orchestras, and the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation. The Lab’s creative learning projects — including the aQWERTYon, Groove Pizza,MathScienceMusic.org, PlayWithYourMusic.org, and Music Playgrounds — have been used by more than eight million learners and creators in over 150 countries.

Ruthmann and his collaborators are recipients of major National Science Foundation, Macarthur Foundation, and U.S. Department of Education awards exploring innovation and entrepreneurship in the arts, the interdisciplinary teaching of computational and musical thinking, and creative learning through music and media technologies.

Ruthmann serves as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) and as a member of its Publications Committee, and is Co-Editor of the International Journal of Music Education. He is co-author of (Scratch Music Projects Oxford University Press) and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education and the Routledge Companion to Music, Technology and Education; Mandarin editions of Scratch Music Projects and the Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education are to be published in translation in 2027. His prior field leadership includes service as Project Co-Lead for a STEAM high school curriculum design project in Belize led by ISME and funded by the Inter-American Development Bank, Chair of ISME’s Music in Schools and Teacher Education Commission, President of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction, Chair of the Creativity Special Research Interest Group of the Society for Research in Music Education, Co-Editor and Managing Editor of the International Journal of Education & the Arts, Associate Editor of the Journal of Music, Technology, and Education, and service on the editorial and advisory boards of the British Journal of Music Education, Journal of Popular Music Education, Research Studies in Music Education, and the Journal of Music and Meaning. His recognition includes selection to the Shanghai Magnolia Talents Program (Scheme A, Senior Talent), designation as a High-Level Foreign Expert by the government of China, and an Artistic Research Laureateship at IRCAM / Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Ruthmann received a self-designed interdisciplinary B.Mus. degree in Music and Technology, cum laude, from the University of Michigan, combining French horn performance, performing arts technology, electrical engineering, and New Genres studio art through the Artist and Scholar Honors Program, and M.Mus. and Ph.D. degrees in Music Education (cognate in Educational Leadership) from Oakland University.