Eli Oesterheld
Please provide a brief summary of your research.
I conducted an independent research project called Quantifying the Human Aspect of Music Using Benford’s Law. I investigated if an excerpt’s adherence to Benford’s law, which has to do with the distribution of first digits in a natural dataset, would be “hearable” to a listener, and whether Benford’s law could be used as a proxy for the perceived “humanness” of a piece.
What made you initially interested in researching your project in particular?
I’d learned about Benford’s law and its applications in fraud detection from podcast, and was interested as to whether it may have a similar functionality when applied to music. My interests in music research tend to center around listener perceptions and experiences, and I was interested in the idea of examining Benford’s law and music in a human subjects context.
What made you interested in pursuing (interdisciplinary) research more broadly?
In music research specifically, there are so many questions that have yet to be asked and so many ways to go about answering those questions. Conducting interdisciplinary research allows me to engage with these questions from a variety of angles and with a variety of methods, and exposes me to ways of thinking about music (and the world more broadly) that I otherwise would not consider.
Describe your experiences with research thus far. Was it tricky? What skills do you think you’ve gained?
Although my project ended up going in a slightly different direction than originally intended, I found this experience both extremely fun and extremely valuable. I spent a fair amount of time troubleshooting and adjusting to unexpected findings, which while occasionally frustrating, taught me to be more flexible in my thinking and encouraged me to explore new directions with my work.
Any tips or advice you have for students similar to you that are interested in pursuing undergraduate research?
Do it! It’s intimidating, especially if your field of interest is more obscure or highly interdisciplinary, but finding faculty with similar/adjacent interests makes a huge difference. Don’t be afraid to reach out to someone who’s work you’re interested in, chances are they’ll be just as excited as you are.
What is something that you could give a 10 min presentation on right off the cuff?
Grass!