Real Industry Sonos Challenges 2019

September 23 & 26, 2019 | In partnership with Sonos | Sonos Headquarters, Boston & University of Michigan

“Today’s university students are the future leaders of industry...By partnering with Sonos and Boston-area universities, we’re able to give students unprecedented access to real-world challenges, technologies, and career opportunities. ”

— Jay LeBoeuf, founder and Executive Director of Real Industry

On Monday, September 23rd, students coming from universities across the Greater Boston Area came together for a kickoff event in partnership with Real Industry and Sonos to answer this question: How do we design or build an experience that transitions people between spaces?  These students hailed from Tufts University, Northeastern University, Harvard University, Boston University, Boston College, Emerson College, Wellesley College, Berklee College of Music, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Clark University, and more.

Smart speakers are transforming how we enjoy music, access information, and interact with our homes. Industry mentors from Sonos are facilitating a challenge in which university students design smart speaker experiences that transitions people between spaces. Over the course of two weeks, students will use Sonos hardware and software to explore this prompt, build something, and communicate the engineering and business value behind their accomplishments.

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“I enjoyed the Real Industry-Sonos events last year in Boston and Seattle. For me, the fact that the students were exposed to a broad cross section of the development process, including ideation, product management, and design, as well as the actual coding, was particularly appealing. I’m excited to see what students do this year with our open developer platform.”

— Matt Welch, Product Manager, Sonos

The Sonos Challenge empowers university students to get experience with technology and innovation in an industry they’re passionate about, all while receiving mentorship from professionals in the field. This partnership between Real Industry and Sonos provides students with opportunities they would not have otherwise accessed.

A team of 4 University students won the Boston Sonos Challenge. Ayush Upneja, Parker Van Roy, Michael Papa, and Matthew Poulson created a radial speaker detection control audio based on RSSI signals.

The team received $1,600 in Sonos speakers and a chance to present their submissions to Sonos leaders.

A huge congrats to Ayush, Parker, Michael, and Matthew! Check out the video below.

On Thursday, September 26th, University of Michigan students attended the kickoff event in partnership with Real Industry and Sonos to answer this question: How do we design or build an experience that transitions people between spaces?

A team of 6 students won the University of Michigan Sonos Challenge, In Beom Yoon, Eugene Yoon, Arya Kumar, Alfred Herbst, George Li, and Paul Balko created Flow.

The team received $2000 in Sonos speakers and a chance to present their submissions to Sonos leaders.

A huge congrats to In Beom, Eugene, Arya, Alfred, George, and Paul! Check out the video below.

Stay tuned for upcoming Sonos Challenges!

Bose Challenge: Carnegie Mellon University

October 18th, 2018 | In partnership with Bose and Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh, PA

Bose Challenge: Carnegie Mellon University

October 18th, 2018

On October 18th over 100 Carnegie Mellon University students came together for a kickoff event in partnership with Real Industry and Bose. Students worked on interdisciplinary teams to gain real-world experience designing for AR, exploring how companies actually develop products, and developing their professional networks.

After learning more about the challenge at the kick-off event, students broke into teams to start on their task. All student teams attending the 3 hour kickoff event received Bose hardware. Over the following 2 weeks, students used Bose hardware to explore a problem or opportunity, build something, and communicate the engineering and business values behind their accomplishments.

“Our mission is educate, empower and inspire university students to succeed in industry. Our partnership with Bose and CMU allows us to provide hundreds of students with the hands-on experience, mentorship, and guidance they need to thrive!”

— Jay LeBoeuf, founder and Executive Director of Real Industry.

The winners of the Carnegie Mellon University Bose Challenge. designed an audio augmented reality medical assistant. Check out the video below for an explanation of their product.

Congratulations to the wining team!

Michael Rivera - PhD in Human-Computer Interaction '22

Ritu Parekh - MHCI '19

Rayna Allonce - Human-Computer Interaction '19

Siyan Zhao - PhD in Human-Computer Interaction '22

Bose wants to empower students to learn about audio augmented reality and design meaningful experiences around it. Bose AR is a new audio augmented reality technology and platform that makes it possible to superimpose sound on top of the real world. With AR, novel experiences for music, communicating, learning, traveling, and more are possible.

Thank you to all of our student participants from Carnegie Mellon and to our partners at Bose!

Bose Challenge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

October 22nd, 2018 | In partnership with Bose and MIT | Boston, MA

Bose Challenge: MIT

October 22nd, 2018

On October 22nd, over 100 MIT students came together for a kickoff event in partnership with Real Industry and Bose. Students worked interdisciplinary teams to gain real-world experience designing for AR, exploring how companies actually develop products, and developing their professional networks.

“Our mission is educate, empower, and inspire university students to succeed in industry. Our partnership with Bose and MIT allows us to provide hundreds of students with the hands-on experience, mentorship, and guidance they need to thrive!”

— Jay LeBoeuf, founder and Executive Director of Real Industry.

After learning more about the challenge at the kick-off event, students broke into teams to start on their task. All student teams attending the 3 hour kickoff event received Bose hardware. Over the following 2 weeks, students used Bose hardware to explore a problem or opportunity, build something, and communicate the engineering and business values behind their accomplishments.

Team Runner's High won the MIT Bose Challenge. Check out the video below for an explanation of their product.

Congratulations to the Runner’s High team:

Jooyeon Lee, Media Lab

Dominic Co, Architecture '19

Yasunori Toshimitsu, Mechanical Engineering '20

Bose wants to empower students to learn about audio augmented reality and design meaningful experiences around it. Bose AR is a new audio augmented reality technology and platform that makes it possible to superimpose sound on top of the real world. With AR, novel experiences for music, communicating, learning, traveling, and more are possible.

Thank you to all of our student participants from MIT and to our partners at Bose!

Bose Challenge: University of California, Berkeley

October 16th, 2018 | In partnership with Bose and UC Berkeley | UC Berkeley, CA

Bose Challenge:

UC Berkeley

October 16th, 2018

On October 16th, over 100 UC Berkeley students came together for a kickoff event in partnership with Real Industry and Bose. Students worked interdisciplinary teams to gain real-world experience designing for AR, exploring how companies actually develop products, and developing their professional networks.

“Our mission is educate, empower, and inspire university students to succeed in industry. Our partnership with Bose and UC Berkeley allows us to provide hundreds of students with the hands-on experience, mentorship, and guidance they need to thrive!”

— Jay LeBoeuf, founder and Executive Director of Real Industry.

After learning more about the challenge at the kick-off event, students broke into teams to start on their task. All student teams attending the 3 hour kickoff event received Bose hardware. Over the following 2 weeks, students used Bose hardware to explore a problem or opportunity, build something, and communicate the engineering and business values behind their accomplishments.

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Bose wants to empower students to learn about audio augmented reality and design meaningful experiences around it. Bose AR is a new audio augmented reality technology and platform that makes it possible to superimpose sound on top of the real world. With AR, novel experiences for music, communicating, learning, traveling, and more are possible.

Participants had great things to share about their experience taking part in this challenge. Jessie Ying, Berkeley Master of Engineering, wrote a wonderful piece all about the challenge and included feedback from students. Bose Design Challenge: How might sound-based augmented reality improve our lives?

Team Nod n Talk won the UC Berkeley Bose Challenge. Check out the video below for an explanation of their product.

Congratulations to the Nod n Talk team:

Jovin Foo - MEng Mechanical Engineering, 2019

Bethany Lu - Mechanical Engineering, 2022

Kristjan Theodor Sigurdsson - MEng Mechanical Engineering, 2019

John Young - MEng Mechanical Engineering, 2019

Zining Wang - MEng Civil & Environmental Engineering, 2019

Thank you to all of our student participants from UC Berkeley, and our partners at the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership.

UPDATE!

The above winners of the UC Berkeley Bose Challenge went on to win The SXSW Augmented Reality Challenge!

Click here to read a student perspective on the Berkeley Design Challenge with Bose and Autodesk on October 22, 2016.

Sonos Challenge: University of Washington

October 9th, 2018 | In partnership with Sonos and the University of Washington | University of Washington, Seattle

Sonos Challenge:

University of Washington

October 9th, 2018

On Tuesday, October 9th, over 100 University of Washington students came together for a kickoff event in partnership with Real Industry and Sonos to answer this question: How do we design or build an experience that delivers the right sound, at the right moment, into people's lives?  The Real Industry team was thrilled to join Sonos in Seattle for the second year in a row.

“Last year, over 100 University of Washington students, with different and complementary levels of skill in digital signal processing, computer science, and machine learning, got together and shared a fine set of experiences. These students were able to apply the concepts that they learned in usual classroom and lab instruction. It was really nice to watch them experience the importance of their creativity in their work. Moreover, they were also able to bring some exciting new concepts back as future research and class projects.”

— Professor Les Atlas, Signal Processing and Machine Learning Researcher, University of Washington

Smart speakers are transforming how we enjoy music, access information, and interact with our homes. Industry mentors from Sonos are facilitating a challenge in which university students design smart speaker experiences that improve the moments in our daily lives. Over the course of two weeks, students will use Sonos hardware and software to explore this prompt, build something, and communicate the engineering and business value behind their accomplishments.

“I enjoyed the Real Industry-Sonos events last year in Boston and Seattle. For me, the fact that the students were exposed to a broad cross section of the development process, including ideation, product management, and design, as well as the actual coding, was particularly appealing. I’m excited to see what students do this year with our open developer platform.”

— Matt Welch, Product Manager, Sonos

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“Today’s university students are the future leaders of industry...By partnering with Sonos and the University of Washington, we’re able to give students unprecedented access to real-world challenges, technologies, and career opportunities. ”

— Jay LeBoeuf, founder and Executive Director of Real Industry

The Sonos Challenge empowers university students to get experience with technology and innovation in an industry they’re passionate about, all while receiving mentorship from professionals in the field. This partnership between Real Industry and Sonos provides students with opportunities they would not have otherwise accessed.

Team Feel.io won the UW Sonos Challenge. In their words: “Express and embrace your feelings, fill the room with your energy and your emotions with Feel.io & SONOS. Together, we deliver the right music, at the right moment, in….to your life. As soon as you say the magic wake-word: ”Feelio!” The embedded microphone will turn on and our artificial intelligence algorithm will listen to your humming, go through the music library in the cloud, and locate the particular song. At the same time, we identify songs with a similar vibe or in the same genre and play them back to you through your SONOS speaker. It is the best way to celebrate your current mood, discover and explore music.”

Congratulations to the Feel.io team: Xu Yan, Computer Science, Zoe Zou, Master in Science and Technology Innovation, Hal Zhang, Electrical Engineering, and Padraic Casserly, Technology Innovation, Bio-Chemistry. Check out their video below!

Sonos Challenge: Boston

October 4th, 2018 | In partnership with Sonos | Sonos Headquarters, Boston

“Today’s university students are the future leaders of industry...By partnering with Sonos and Boston-area universities, we’re able to give students unprecedented access to real-world challenges, technologies, and career opportunities. ”

— Jay LeBoeuf, founder and Executive Director of Real Industry

On Thursday, October 4th, students coming from universities across the Greater Boston Area came together for a kickoff event in partnership with Real Industry and Sonos to answer this question: How do we design or build an experience that delivers the right sound, at the right moment, into people's lives?  These students hailed from Tufts University, Northeastern University, Harvard University, Boston University, Boston College, Emerson College, Wellesley College, Berklee College of Music, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Clark University, and more.

Smart speakers are transforming how we enjoy music, access information, and interact with our homes. Industry mentors from Sonos are facilitating a challenge in which university students design smart speaker experiences that improve the moments in our daily lives. Over the course of two weeks, students will use Sonos hardware and software to explore this prompt, build something, and communicate the engineering and business value behind their accomplishments.

View fullsize

“I enjoyed the Real Industry-Sonos events last year in Boston and Seattle. For me, the fact that the students were exposed to a broad cross section of the development process, including ideation, product management, and design, as well as the actual coding, was particularly appealing. I’m excited to see what students do this year with our open developer platform.”

— Matt Welch, Product Manager, Sonos

The Sonos Challenge empowers university students to get experience with technology and innovation in an industry they’re passionate about, all while receiving mentorship from professionals in the field. This partnership between Real Industry and Sonos provides students with opportunities they would not have otherwise accessed.

A team of 3 Tufts University students won the Boston Sonos Challenge. Chris Markus, Electrical Engineering  ‘20, Katie Elliott, EE ‘20, and Allie Lam, Applied Math/Music Technology ‘20, created OurSound, a group listening solution.

Their project was an integrated, collaborative music recommendation solution, built upon the Spotify and Sonos APIs. The app allows groups of listeners to enjoy a music playlist creating based on their shared listening preferences, easily controlled by intuitive controls, on a Sonos system.

The team received $1,200 in Sonos speakers and a chance to present their submissions to Sonos leaders.

A huge congrats to Chris, Katie, and Allie! Check out the OurSound video below.

New York University Pandora Challenge with The War on Drugs & GRAMMY™ Music Education Coalition

September 26th, 2018 | In partnership with The War on Drugs and the GRAMMY™ Music Education Coalition, presented with New York University #PandoraChallenge 

“The Real Industry Pandora Challenge events give students a look behind the curtain into real-world artist marketing technologies and scenarios. This is the type of work they can put on resumes during future internship and job searches.”

— Heather Ellis, Manager, Artist Marketing at Pandora

On Wednesday, September 26th, New York University students came together for a kickoff event in partnership with The War on Drugs and the GRAMMY™ Music Education Coalition for the Pandora Challenge. The GRAMMY™ Music Education Coalition is a non-profit collective dedicated to building universal music education participation in elementary and secondary schools nationwide.

At this event, students formed teams to create music marketing and playlist campaigns to support the GRAMMY™ Music Education Coalition in positively impacting the lives of young people. This is the power of music and technology powering social impact.

“The program educates, empowers, inspires thousands of students for careers in music, media, marketing, and business. Students make a dent in the universe, while gaining the real-world experience and professional networks they need to secure future employment.”

— Jay LeBoeuf, Founder and Executive Director at Real Industry

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The assignment is to create, launch, market, and optimize playlists that drive awareness to the mission of GRAMMY™ Music Education Coalition. The playlists will include an introduction from The War on Drugs and student-created voice messages that educate listeners about the non-profit’s mission. The student teams have four weeks to grow their listenership and influence their audience to become activated in the conversation around the power of music in transforming lives and access to music resources for all.

The New York University Pandora Challenge wrapped up on October 24th! Congratulations to the winning teams!

The Comedown

Carmen Lustik - Music Composition for Film and Multimedia - Class of 2021

Elizabeth Croteau - Music Composition for Songwriting and Production - Class of 2021

Akua Amponsah - Journalism Class of 2022

Raised by Radio

Emily Knesevitch - Music Business - Class of 2019

Aranyaka Verma - Music Business - Class of 2019

Paul Sergent - Music Business - Class of 2019

Stephanie Goldberg - Music Business - Class of 2019

For more on the Pandora Challenges, check out Pandora’s article: http://blog.pandora.com/us/pandora-real-industrys-second-annual-university-challenge/

University of Michigan Pandora Challenge with Bryce Vine & Barn Sanctuary

September 25th, 2018 | In partnership with Bryce Vine and Barn Sanctuary, presented with the University of Michigan #PandoraChallenge 

“We are so excited to host the Pandora Challenge: Music and Social Impact here at the University of Michigan. The Department of Entrepreneurship and Leadership (in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance) is committed to catalyzing pathways for passionate, creative students who believe in the potential for music to make the world better...the chance to work with rising star Bryce Vine to support a local organization like Barn Sanctuary is exactly the kind of experiential learning platform our students need as they develop their professional voices...all while applying the UM traditions of leadership, innovation, and social responsibility.”

— Jonathan Kuuskoski, Chair, Department of Entrepreneurship and Leadership, Director, EXCEL Lab, School of Music, Theatre & Dance - University of Michigan

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Photo Credit: Sam Goldin

On Tuesday, September 24th, Real Industry and Pandora took the Pandora Challenge:Music & Social Impact tour to Ann Arbor, Michigan! University of Michigan students came together for a kickoff event in partnership with Bryce Vine and Barn Sanctuary. Barn Sanctuary is a hands-on animal sanctuary dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and caring for farm animal refugees. This includes any animals that have been abused, abandoned, sentenced to death or are victims of natural disasters. Bryce grew up with Dan McKernan, the Founder and Executive Director of Barn Sanctuary, making this organization and program especially significant to him and everyone involved.

At this event, students formed teams to create music marketing and playlist campaigns to support Barn Sanctuary in it’s mission to better the lives of farm animal refugees. After receiving instruction from the Pandora team, students got to work on creating their campaigns.

“The Real Industry Pandora Challenge events give students a look behind the curtain into real-world artist marketing technologies and scenarios. This is the type of work they can put on resumes during future internship and job searches.”

— Heather Ellis, Manager, Artist Marketing at Pandora

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Photo Credit: Sam Goldin

The assignment is to create, launch, market, and optimize playlists that drives awareness to the Barn Sanctuary. The playlists will include an introduction from Bryce Vine and student-created voice messages that educate listeners about the non-profit’s mission. The student teams have three weeks to grow their listenership and influence their audience to become activated in the conversation around the power of music in transforming lives and access to music resources for all.

The University of Michigan Pandora Challenge wrapped up on October 16th! A big congratulations to the students on the winning team.

Andrew Reed - UX Design and Business - Class of 2020

Naman Gupta - Business Administration - Class of 2021

Tiana Colovos - Economics - Class of 2020

Sanjit Johri - Business - Class of 2022

Muskaan Bajoria - LSA Undecided - Class of 2021

On November 13, 2018, Pandora’s executive team invited the winner team for a half-day mentorship session with:

Tony Calzaretta, VP Listener Product & Design, Bill Crandall, VP Editorial Content, Shamal Ranasinghe, VP Catalog & Creator Product, Lauren Nagel, VP Executive Creative Director, Beckie Wood, VP Content Programming, Catalog & Insights and Heather Ellis, Manager, Artist Marketing.

In addition, Pandora shared the team’s winning playlists across its social media outlets.

For more on the Pandora Challenges, check out Pandora’s article: http://blog.pandora.com/us/pandora-real-industrys-second-annual-university-challenge/

University of Hartford Pandora Challenge with Andrew McMahon & Dear Jack Foundation

September 17th, 2018 | In partnership with Andrew McMahon and the Dear Jack Foundation, presented with University of Hartford #PandoraChallenge 

“The University of Hartford is thrilled to participate in the 2018 Real Industry Pandora Challenge. This event presents the real-world intersection of music, marketing and social advocacy to our students as an exercise that will better prepare them to enter the workforce career ready. This is truly an educational experience that cannot be had any other way...The opportunities for innovative teaching and critical thinking are truly endless and we can’t wait to see our students grow from this collaboration.”

— Gabe Herman, Assistant Professor of Music Industry,University of Hartford

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Photo Credit: Jonathan Olson

On Thursday, September 20th, University of Hartford students came together for a kickoff event in partnership with Andrew McMahon and the Dear Jack Foundation for the Pandora Challenge. The Dear Jack Foundation provides impactful programming that directly benefits adolescents and young adults diagnosed with cancer in order to improve quality of life and create positive health outcomes from treatment to survivorship for patients and their families.

At this event, students formed teams to create music marketing and playlist campaigns to support the Dear Jack Foundation in positively impacting the lives of young people. This is the power of music and technology powering social impact.

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“The Real Industry Pandora Challenge events give students a look behind the curtain into real-world artist marketing technologies and scenarios. This is the type of work they can put on resumes during future internship and job searches.”

— Heather Ellis, Manager, Artist Marketing at Pandora

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Photo Credit: Jonathan Olson

The assignment is to create, launch, market, and optimize playlists that drives awareness to the Dear Jack Foundation. The playlists will include an introduction from Andrew McMahon and student-created voice messages that educate listeners about the non-profit’s mission. The student teams have three weeks to grow their listenership and influence their audience to become activated in the conversation around the power of music in transforming lives and access to music resources for all.

The University of Hartford Pandora Challenge wrapped up on October 11th! Congratulations to the winning team.

Sarah Watts - Music Management - Class of 2019

Gianna Bielenda - Music Management - Class of 2019

On November 13, 2018, Pandora’s executive team invited the winner team for a half-day mentorship session with:

Tony Calzaretta, VP Listener Product & Design, Bill Crandall, VP Editorial Content, Shamal Ranasinghe, VP Catalog & Creator Product, Lauren Nagel, VP Executive Creative Director, Beckie Wood, VP Content Programming, Catalog & Insights and Heather Ellis, Manager, Artist Marketing.

In addition, Pandora shared the team’s winning playlists across its social media outlets.

For more on the Pandora Challenges, check out Pandora’s article: http://blog.pandora.com/us/pandora-real-industrys-second-annual-university-challenge/

Carnegie Mellon University Pandora Challenge with Jon Batiste & Sing for Hope

September 17th, 2018 | In partnership with Jon Batiste and Sing for Hope, presented with Carnegie Mellon University #PandoraChallenge 

“We’re very excited to host the Pandora Challenge this year at Carnegie Mellon University. At CMU, we continually look for ways to bring together the best minds from across campus and expose them to real-world challenges and opportunities. The Pandora Challenge is a perfect fit. Our students will have a great chance to collaborate, innovate and launch a new initiative out into the world.”

— Lance LaDuke, Assistant Teaching Professor of Euphonium, Director, Modern Musicking Lab, Carnegie Mellon University

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On Monday, September 17th, Carnegie Mellon University students came together for a kickoff event in partnership with Jon Batiste and charitable non-profit Sing for Hope for the Pandora Challenge. At this event, students formed teams to use the power of music to create social impact. Teams will create a music marketing and playlist campaign to support the support Sing for Hope in their mission to transform individuals and communities by leveraging the power of the arts to create a better world.

“Powering transformation through the arts is at the core of Sing for Hope’s mission. That’s why we are proud to join our dear friend and Sing for Hope board member Jon Batiste to partner with Real Industry and Pandora, tapping the great minds at Carnegie Mellon University to amplify our message for a broad audience.”

— Monica Yunus Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder of Sing for Hope, and Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, and Camille Zamora, Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder of Sing for Hope

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The assignment is to create, launch, market, and optimize playlists that drives awareness to Sing for Hope. The playlists will include an introduction from Jon Batiste and student-created voice messages that educate listeners about the non-profit’s mission. The student teams have three weeks to grow their listenership and influence their audience to become activated in the conversation around the power of music in transforming lives and access to music resources for all.

“The Real Industry Pandora Challenge events give students a look behind the curtain into real-world artist marketing technologies and scenarios. This is the type of work they can put on resumes during future internship and job searches.”

— Heather Ellis, Manager, Artist Marketing at Pandora

The Carnegie Mellon University Pandora Challenge wrapped up on October 7th! Congratulations to the winning student team!

Shane Killen - Vocal Performance - Class of 2022

Kyle Collins - Vocal Performance - Class of 2022

Lucy Altus - Vocal Performance - Class of 2022

Julia Timmons - Vocal Performance - Class of 2022

Olivia Gesualdi - Vocal Performance - Class of 2022

On November 13, 2018, Pandora’s executive team invited the winner team for a half-day mentorship session with:

Tony Calzaretta, VP Listener Product & Design, Bill Crandall, VP Editorial Content, Shamal Ranasinghe, VP Catalog & Creator Product, Lauren Nagel, VP Executive Creative Director, Beckie Wood, VP Content Programming, Catalog & Insights and Heather Ellis, Manager, Artist Marketing.

In addition, Pandora shared the team’s winning playlists across its social media outlets.

For more on the Pandora Challenges, check out Pandora’s article: http://blog.pandora.com/us/pandora-real-industrys-second-annual-university-challenge/