Belinda Thom ...the honorable Queen B...


How to reach me:

In July, 2002, I became an Asst. Professor in the Computer Science Department at Harvey Mudd College. How to reach me:
  • Physical Address:
    1250 N. Dartmouth Ave.
    Olin Bldg, Room 1241
    Claremont, CA 91711
  • Mailing Address:
    Harvey Mudd College, Computer Science Dept.
    301 E. 12th St., Claremont, CA 91711-5990, USA
  • Telephone: 909-607-9662 / FAX: 909-607-8364
  • Email:The following email account will ALWAYS work and always forward to the correct place, so please ONLY send email to me at bthom@cs.cmu.edu. Please do NOT send email to me at multiple addresses, regardless of where I am replying to you from. Thanks!


  • Research Interests:

    My research interests are interdisciplinary; I specialize in applying Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques to the customization of real time, interactive, improvisational Computer Music systems. My driving motivation is to enable the computer's equal participation in live, improvised musical exchanges --- to bring the computer out of the box, so to speak.
  • Computer Music Interests: the hierarchical perception, generation, and representation of harmonic and/or melodic structure at different time-scales; autonomous transcription, beat tracking, and musical expression; principled evaluations of systems in AI and art based domains.
  • Machine Learning Interests: feature selection, Bayesian and semi-parametric statistic methods, unsupervised learning, Monte Carlo simulation, temporal sequence learning.
  • For more information, see my Curriculum Vitae (pdf), Research Statement (pdf), and Teaching Statement (pdf).


    Publications Computer Music & Music Links Machine Learning Links Technical Links Stuff I Use All the Time


    Useful Web Sites:

  • Worthwhile Online Radio Links
  • Useful German Links
  • Campus Directory
  • (SCS Personal Home Pages)
  • Search the CS.CMU.EDU zephyr archives.
  • Search andrew classes zephyr archive
  • Facilities PC Support Home Page
  • CMU Libraries
  • First Search
  • Electronic Journal Access
  • TOM Document Converter
  • Webster's Dictionary
  • Merriam-Webster Online
  • Grammar Reference
  • Bartleby Great Books Online
  • Britannica
  • Movies in da'burgh
  • Chuck's Links
  • Alta Vista Language Translator
  • Pittsburgh Weather
  • PATransit Home Page
  • Home-page Finder
  • Northern Light Search
  • CFA Events Calendar


    Other Interests:

  • Hiking, Skiing, and Cross-Country in the Sierra Nevada
  • Fiddle: Blues, Mississippi Mud, Swing, Jazz
  • Brew Pub Hopping
  • Crosswords and more crosswords.

  • Recommended Listening:

  • Fiddle: Stuff Smith, Joe Venuti, Eddie South, Stephane Grappelli, Nigel Kennedy, Marc O'Conner, Vassar Clemmens, Turtle Island String Quartet, Kronos Quartet
  • Guitar: Robert Johnson,Django Reinhardt, Leo Kottke,Richard Thompson, Reverand Gary Davis
  • Generally Awesome: US3, War, Thelonius Monk, Pentangle,Joe Pass, Ella Fitzgerald, Arrested Development, Ali Farka Toure,Tom Waits, Taj Mahal, Jimmy Smith, Chris Isaak, Eddie Harris, Crusaders, Little Axe, Howlin' Wolf, Eartha Kitt
  • A good friend & awesome guitarist

  • Wack-o Web Sites (enter at your own risk):

  • The Back-door to CMU
  • Our Beautiful President!
  • Weird-o-rama
  • History of Public Toilets
  • A little something for the ones you hate...
  • Disgusting snow statues
  • Urban legends & Folklore
  • Billboard Liberation Front
  • Web Museum
  • Forum 2000
  • Mullets Galore
  • The Institute of Official Cheer
  • Retro Future
  • The Dr. Ruth Page
  • Odd Dancing Baby
  • Burt Is Evil
  • The Infamous Exploding Whale

  • And Don't Forget...

    Duke Ellington: "I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."

    Stephane Grappelli: "Great improvisers are like priests. They are thinking only of their god."

    Louis Armstrong: "What we play is life."

    P.N. Johnson-Laird: "The essential psychological feature of musical improvisation, whether it be modern jazz, classical music, Indian, African, or music of any other sort, is that the musicians themselves do not have conscious access to the processes underlying their production of music...The fact is that human beings have conscious access to only a small part of the contents of their minds, and hardly any access whatsoever to mental processes... [Dave Sundrow] indicates that as one develops the ability to improvise the skill seems to come out of the very end of one's fingertips. Its main components are profoundly unconscious."

    Renoir: "...We have a devilish amount of vanity to believe that what comes out of our brain is more valuable than what we see around us. Imagination doesn't take us very far, whereas the world is so immense. Even if we walked all of our lives, we shouldn't see the end of it..."

    Thomas Moore: "Tradition teaches us that soul lies midway between understanding and unconsciousness, and that its instrument is neither the mind nor the body, but imagination."

    Scott Raymond Adams: "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."


    Have a nice day and thanks for visiting!