Conducting robots — Bridging the gap between science, technology and the arts in the undergraduate curriculum

While many have explored multidisciplinary approaches to course content delivery in computer science and engineering, very few have combined engineering with fundamentally different disciplines such as the arts, humanities, or social science. This paper presents a multidisciplinary undergraduate seminar entitled “Conducting Robots” that brings together majors from four disparate disciplines: computer science, mechanical engineering, music, and interactive multimedia. The goal of the course is to teach and support interdisciplinary teamwork while student teams build an artificial system that can conduct the college orchestra. The end-of-semester survey shows that students found the course interesting and challenging, motivating them to collaborate with peers across disciplines.