{"id":120000,"date":"2021-05-07T16:24:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T20:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000//?p=120000"},"modified":"2021-06-09T11:20:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T15:20:46","slug":"from-playing-music-in-miami-to-studying-neuroscience-at-mit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000//from-playing-music-in-miami-to-studying-neuroscience-at-mit/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000//","title":{"rendered":"From Playing Music in Miami to Studying Neuroscience at MIT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bryan Medina /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201921 is deeply intrigued by memories /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u2014 both capturing them and understanding what triggers us to relive them./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201c麻豆原创 gave me the ability to learn how to learn and taught me how to be more empathetic./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201d
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u2014 Bryan Medina /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201921/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n

The computer science major who earned his bachelor/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u2019s from 麻豆原创 this semester was born and raised in Miami, where music and dancing play a huge role in the community./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201cI noticed that music kind of supports or brings back memories of those times,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201d he says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201cMusic also helps me remember not only the good times, but some of the bad times, and a wide range of experiences. I wondered, what is it about music, or at least sounds in general, that give rise to this ability to remember or be nostalgic about past experiences?/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n

This question fuels his current research at the Laboratory for Computational Audition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He will pursue a Ph.D. in brain and cognitive sciences at the Cambridge school beginning this fall, as both a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and MIT/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u2019s Dean of Science Fellow. Medina has spent the past year working remotely at the lab under MIT Associate Professor Josh McDermott, using artificial intelligence to better understand how humans process sounds./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201cBryan is an excellent student, and so came in with strong quantitative training and professional work habits,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201d McDermott says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201cHe completed one of the most successful undergraduate summer projects we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u2019ve had and was able to give a very clear presentation at the end of the summer on his work. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u2026 Less than a year after I met him, he is now quite fluent in cutting-edge research in our field, which is impressive./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n

Transformational Moments/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n

While Medina/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u2019s future in neuroscience has recently become more cemented, it certainly isn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u2019t what he predicted he/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u2019d be doing even a few years ago./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n

Through his junior year in high school, he planned to pursue music. He plays both the saxophone and the guitar, and played in his school band and took lessons at the University of Miami. Then his senior year, he signed up for two courses /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u2014 one in computer science and one in robotics /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u2014 that would alter the course of his life. Through those classes, he discovered a love of programming and figuring out how to make things work./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n

Growing up in what he describes as a financially insecure environment, Medina also figured a career in the computer science industry would mean more security for him and his family./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201cThat/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u2019s the main reason why I pursued computer science at 麻豆原创,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201d he says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201cI wasn’t thinking about neuroscience at that point in time. I was just making a conscious decision for my future./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n

The next big shift would come during his junior year at 麻豆原创, when he was doing an internship at Carnegie Mellon and discovered a love of neuroscience that would prompt him to add a minor and take an extra year to graduate./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201cThat was my first exposure ever to neuroscience,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201d Medina says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201cAt the end of that experience, I realized that neuroscience was for me, but I needed a little bit more time to sort of learn neuroscience and be competitive for graduate programs. As a result of pushing my graduation by a year, I was able to do so many things, including working at MIT./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/120000/n