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  Undergraduate students Ebube Okonji and Nathan Pruyne introduced the music and code campers to TunePad,  a platform for creating and sharing musical compositions using the Python programming language. Four teams of students created original beats and melodies by choosing from a library of bass, keyboard and drum sounds, instrumental riffs, and hip-hop samples and adjusting the tempo, volume, and arrangement.  Okonji is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering at Northwestern Engineering and a Managerial Analytics Certificate from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.  Pruyne is earning a bachelor’s degree in computer science at Northwestern Engineering and a second major in music technology through Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music.

  “The students were incredibly energetic, engaged, and creative throughout the week.  When we asked the students to brainstorm their own sports technology inventions and technology enhanced movement games and sports,  I was blown away by how they quickly grasped how these advanced physical computing concepts worked, as well as how to use them to create novel fun games as well as meaningful enhancements for sports play and training,” Kumar said. “I'm optimistic for any venture these students pursue in the future and would be thrilled to see how the SportSense program nudges them to think of athletics and computing in creative ways across their lives.” Programming original music The experience-level and background of the students varied widely. Camp activities were designed to engage both beginners and more advanced coders.