Professor revolutionizing how we understand data

CHENEY – A professor at Eastern Washington University has been developing sonification software that can turn datasets into a musical composition.

Jonathan Middleton, DMA, who has worked at the university since 1999, has worked with students and researchers alike to develop his sonification software, which converts data streams into audible sounds, such as music.

“It’s algorithmic, it’s a set of steps, and it’ll take numbers and letters (like genetic code) and transform them into pitches and rhythms,” Middleton said. “And the transformation is a bunch of mapping systems in that step; the final...