Music Master

When I was 12, I started learning to play guitar. Music became my passion. Around the same time, I also started enjoying computer programming—writing instructions, called code, that tell computers what we want them to do. I majored in computer science when I was in college. Afterward, I worked on a Ph.D. project that mixed both my passion for music and computer science. I built algorithms—sets of rules that a computer uses to solve a problem—for recommending music. I tried to improve the music my program suggested by including songs that weren’t as well-known to users. My code was the beginning of what I would eventually go on to create for Pandora.

I oversee a team of 80 people. Some are data scientists who use computers to make sense of complex digital data. Others are musicologists who study all aspects of music. The musicologists listen to each song Pandora offers, one at a time. They annotate all the attributes of the music, like the key, the rhythm, and the style of the singing. The data scientists integrate this musical data with the signals they receive from users. They’ve built more than 70 algorithms that pull together all this information to find other music that you might like. The recommendations are tailored to you, personalized based on your interests and your interaction with Pandora.

Coding and algorithms have strong components of math and statistics. So programmers need to have a good understanding of these subjects. But instead of focusing too heavily on what you need to know for the future, right now young people should really just find things they enjoy doing. Even playing with LEGO bricks or playing computer games helps a lot in becoming a computer scientist. What starts with LEGOs or games eventually turns into building algorithms. It has to be an evolution, without too much pressure to be the best at math or science. Everyone should be welcome to explore this world.