Alexandre R. J. François

Computer Science
University of Southern California

Analytical Listening Through Interactive Visualization

Photo by Tony Rinaldo

Alexandre R. J. François is a research assistant professor of computer science at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). His research focuses on the modeling and design of complex dynamic software systems, as a step toward understanding perception, cognition, and interaction. François is the creator of the Software Architecture for Immersipresence (SAI), a general formalism for the design, analysis, and implementation of complex software systems. His Modular Flow Scheduling Middleware (MFSM, mfsm.sourceforge.net) provides an open-source implementation of SAI’s abstractions. Leveraging the SAI/MFSM framework, his experimental graduate and undergraduate courses in software development pool the efforts of the entire class on a single, ambitious collaborative project.

At Radcliffe, François will further the understanding of music through the design of interactive analysis and visualization software. This will be joint work with computational scientist and Radcliffe fellow Elaine Chew. Their MuSA.RT system for real-time analysis and interactive visualization of tonal structures in music, designed and implemented using François’s SAI/MFSM framework, has been featured in live performance. François will also investigate similarities between auditory and visual cognitive processes.

François received the diplôme d’ingénieur from the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon in 1993; the diplôme d’études approfondies (MS) from the University Paris IX-Dauphine in 1994; and MS and PhD degrees in computer science from USC in 1997 and 2000, respectively. From 2001 to 2004, he was a research associate at USC’s Integrated Media Systems Center and USC’s Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems.