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Simon Hutchinson, Ph.D., is excited about the new opportunities for creativity that await his students this semester. He is, particularly, looking forward to helping them explore sound by giving them the tools to create their own electronic musical instruments.

Dr. Hutchinson is teaching “Handmade Electronic Sound” in the University’s new Bergami Center for Science, Technology, and Innovation. The course will enable students to learn in the building’s cutting-edge classrooms, moving from lectures and discussion to building their own circuits. He plans to work with students in the building’s new Makerspace, where they will create enclosures and resonators with the 3D printers and laser cutters.

“This class forefronts technology and the students’ relationship with technology,” said Dr. Hutchinson, an assistant professor and coordinator of the University’s music and sound recording program. “It calls on them to not just be consumers, but active participants in shaping technoculture. Learning in the Bergami Center will encourage and empower students to really engage with their relationship with technology and to think critically about the role that they want it to play in society and in their personal lives.”

An Honors course, “Handmade Electronic Sound” will enable students to create electronic musical instruments from discarded toys and circuits that they will construct themselves. Students are not required to have previous electronics or music experience to take the course.

"Learning in the Bergami Center will encourage and empower students to really engage with their relationship with technology and to think critically about the role that they want it to play in society and in their personal lives."Simon Hutchinson, Ph.D.

The Bergami Center has been officially unveiled this semester and is open to all students and faculty from across the University. It features cutting-edge science classrooms, communications studios, and advanced "smart" classrooms, as well as a theater space outfitted with , a state-of-the-art playback sound system.

“It’s very exciting and motivating for students and faculty to be working in the new Bergami Center,” said Dr. Hutchinson, who also uses the University’s Makerspace for his professional projects, creating pieces he has used in performances across the United States and abroad.

“It helps us to see the potential around us,” he said.