Ari Lazier

alazier@gmail.com  

303 Harvard Ave. E. Apt. 304

Seattle WA, 98102

 

 

Education:  

 

1999-2003        Princeton University, Undergraduate Class of 2003, B.A. in Computer Science.

1995-1999        Ocean Lakes High School, Virginia Beach, VA – Valedictorian.

 

 

Employment:

 

2003-2005                Software Developer, MSN Search, Microsoft Corporation

Developer on an unreleased product

Software Developer in Test, MSN Search, Microsoft Corporation

Core contributor to the MSN Search ranking algorithm. Developed metrics to evaluate the relevance of local search, news search, news browsing and other auxiliary components. Developed techniques and tools to debug and understand algorithmic relevance problems that are now used throughout the team for both internal development and addressing customer issues. Tested the efficacy and functionality of the ranking, training, and human relevance systems.

2002-2003                Researcher and Developer, Princeton University Department of Computer Science

Implemented a number of feature extraction algorithms taken from recent research including pitch detectors, spectral and noise envelope estimators, and beat trackers. Developed real-time feature-based audio-driven systems for musical expression. Ported and added features to physical modeling, singing-voice synthesis, and other computer music software. Designed and developed parts of Marsyas, a system for audio analysis and synthesis as well as Chuck, a new computer music programming language. (Worked under Perry Cook)

Summer 2001  Software Developer, F.A.S.T/Softlab (Munich, Germany)

                           Worked on the development of a dynamic map server and dealer locator used on BMW’s web site in all markets.

 

 

Selected Projects:

 

Mosievius          Princeton Senior Thesis

Created a system for feature-based, audio-driven mosaicing used to sequence both recorded and live sound to provide expressive control over the creation of sample-based music. Developed a number of new real-time effects based on general concatenative synthesis and audio information retrieval within this system. Wrote a rapid prototyping scripting language to facilitate the creation and testing of different mosaicing techniques and to provide control over the system with both MIDI and features extracted from live audio streams.

Gigapop            NIME 2003

Participated in both the design and development of software that transmits audio and video over UDP at low latencies. Was successfully used in a live performance where musicians were separated by 400 miles.

ESitar                NIME 2004

Co-designed and built a sitar outfitted with sensors to transcribe a Sitar performance without the need for audio analysis. Programmed a microcontroller to process signals emitted from the sensors. Wrote real time software that used the ESitar’s control information to generate synthesized music in real time to accompany the sitar’s acoustic output.

 

 

Publications:

 

Ari Lazier and Perry R. Cook. "MoSievius: Feature-based Interactive Audio Mosaicing", In Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx), London, England. September 2003.

 

Kapur, Ajay, Lazier, Ariel, Davidson, Philip, Wilson, R. Scott, & Perry R. Cook, "The Electronic Sitar Controller", In Proceedings of the 2004 Conference on New Instruments for Musical Expression (NIME) Hamamatsu, Japan. June 2004.

 

Chris Burges et al, “Learning to Rank using Gradient Descent”, In Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), Bonn, Germany, August 2005. (forthcoming)

 

 

Technical Skills:    

 

                           C/C++, SQL, Perl, C#, Java, Chuck

                           Linux/Unix, Visual Studio/Win32, Matlab, PD/MaxMSP, Marsyas