bachination

(noun) bach·i·na·tion | \.bɒ-kə-'nā-shən : crafty action or artful design intended to accomplish some usually musical end


With a strong background in both vibrations and music, the Bachination Project within LAB2701 specializes in customized or optimized musical instruments. 

Dr. Perkins has previous experience working as faculty in the Music Department at North Carolina State University, and he developed a cross-listed graduate level Music Engineering course.

Is music a computational experience?

To get an idea of whether this is true, a music hall was utilized as a physical reservoir computer. The room's fastest computational speed aligns with the fastest rhythm that humans can typically discern. It seems plausible that the acoustics of music halls was unintentionally designed to harness this type of computing.

Asphaltophone

The asphaltophone, sometimes called a "singing road", is a musical instrument whose components are the road and a vehicle. By varying the space between bumps or ridges, the car will vibrate at a particular frequency when traveling at a specified speed, producing a tune. We modeled the asphaltophone and formulated a closed-form solution of the response, which we then used to optimize the design. This asphaltophone was then fabricated and installed at Auburn University as the #wareagleroad.

Designer Guitar Pedals

Building on other work in the lab, we've modified an adaptive oscillator circuit to function as a guitar pedal. This type of circuit bending is popular for custom musical instruments.

STEM Education & Outreach

We have designed numerous STEM education modules, which utilize 3D printed ocarinas and other music examples. These modules focus on how musical instruments work and how they can be modeled.