Ajay Kapur

Ajay Kapur (born 1980) is a computer scientist, musician, entrepreneur and educator known for his pioneering work in musical robotics, artificial intelligence, and digital instrument design. He has toured internationally with his custom electronic sitar and mobile robotic drummer, the MahaDeviBot and currently serves as professor and associate Provost at California Institute of the Arts with advisory roles at New Zealand School of Music.

Ajay founded his first company in 2006, KarmetiK, LLC. which focused on robotics, AI, and machine learning for the entertainment industry. Ajay co-founded Kadenze in March 2013 with Jordan Hochenbaum, Owen Vallis and Perry Cook, and served as president and CEO for 5 years. Kadenze was known as the MOOC for arts, music and creative technology, with patented AI algorithms for auto grading music and media course work automatically. Ajay later went on to found an Applied AI company known as Nirveda Cognition.

In June 2002, Ajay Kapur received his undergraduate degree in computer science from Princeton University. For his senior thesis, he conceived the Electronic Tabla MIDI Controller. After his undergraduate degree, he engaged in graduate studies at the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia under Dr. George Tzanetakis. Kapur received his PhD in interdisciplinary studies combining electrical and computer engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering, music, and psychology in November 2007. His dissertation "Digitizing North Indian Performance: Extension and Preservation Using Multimodal Sensor Systems, Machine Learning & Robotics" was published in 2008 by VDM Verlag Dr. Müller. While studying at the University of Victoria, he learned electromechanical construction techniques from sound sculptor and MacArthur Fellow Trimpin.

Ajay Kapur currently serves as the program director for the Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence, and Design (MTIID) program and at California Institute of the Arts and additionally holds the title of Associate Dean for Research and Development in Digital Arts. As head of MTIID since 2008, he has increased the program's focus on electromechanical design for musical robotics, DSP, computer science, and world music.

Since 2009 he has also served as PhD adviser and senior lecturer in the Sonic Arts program at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, New Zealand. He remains an active researcher, focusing on the field of musical interface design and musical robotics. As a musician, Kapur focuses on creating electronic interfaces for traditional Indian instruments, including robotic instruments and electronic additions to classical instruments. In 2013, Kapur co-authored a book on introductory programming in the ChucK audio programming language to support a new MOOC on the Coursera platform, Introduction to Programming for Musicians and Digital Artists.

Ajay went on to co-create Kadenze, a MOOC for arts and creative technology. He actively has kept his research in artificial intelligence and machine learning and has published over 150 papers and filed multiple patents, on the subject as well as remain actively involved in startups with AI as the core technology.