College of Sciences and Arts Newsblog

Author: Windy Veker

Visual and Performing Arts Student wins Audio Engineering Society Recording Competition

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Thirteen students stand with assistant professor Jeff Sherwood in front of a large hanging AES Show banner at the student recording competition.
Michigan Tech VPA students attended the 2024 Audio Engineering Society International Student Recording Competition in New York City in October. (Images courtesy Michigan Tech Visual and Performing Arts)

Sound design student Nate Lyons ’25 brought home a Bronze Award in the Audio Engineering Society (AES) International Student Recording Competition. Lyons won the award in the Sound for Visual Media category for his sound design audio replacement of a video game. 

“I got the idea from one of my other classes where I was learning how to program sounds for video games. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to practice that skill with the programs that we use for video game sound design,” said Lyons.

Students have an opportunity to attend and present at the international AES convention in New York City as part of VPA career development and professional presentation travel and study away courses. This is the second year in a row sound design and audio production and technology students from Michigan Tech’s VPA have received awards in the prestigious international competition.

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Husky Preserves Indigenous Language as Voice Actor in Ojibwe Star Wars Dub

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Kalvin Hartwig stands in a sound-proofed recording studio in front of a computer, microphone and recording equipment as he records lines for his voice acting role.
Michigan Tech alumnus Niigaanii-Animikii Inini Kalvin Hartwig ’10 brings his mission of supporting Indigenous language to new heights as one of the main cast voice actors in the Ojibwe dubbing of Star Wars: A New Hope.

Michigan Tech alumnus Niigaanii-Animikii Inini Kalvin Hartwig ’10 continues his career-long dedication to supporting Indigenous language and cultural revitalization as one of the main cast voice actors in an Ojibwe dubbing of Star Wars: A New Hope. 

Hartwig is an award-winning filmmaker, a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, and a Tech graduate in social sciences, humanities and German. He voices the Red Leader character, originally played by the late Gordan “Drewe” Henley in the dub, which began streaming on Disney+ on Oct. 27. 

Read more about Hartwig’s passion for the project, how he got involved, and the recording process in the full feature by Jordan Shawhan,  Husky Makes History with Voice Role in Ojibwe Dubbing of Star Wars, at Michigan Tech Alumni Stories.

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Bell Gives Voice to the History of Talking Machines in Nationally Recognized Book

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The cover of Vox Ex Machina: A Cultural History of Talking Machines by Sarah Bell

Sarah Bell, associate professor of digital media in the College of Science and Arts gained national recognition recently when her book Vox Ex Machina was listed on the New Yorker’s “Best Books We’ve Read This Week.” The book details the development of key voice synthesis technologies across the 20th century and factors that influenced their creation.

Bell’s exploration of the topic goes far deeper than a simple history of how these technologies were created, also exploring public response to the tech and asking whether talking machines are good for us.

“We were already primed for voice assistants before Siri and Alexa, but that doesn’t mean they work very well for us.”

Sarah Bell

Vox Ex Machina is as much about the people creating and using voice synthesis as it is about the technology itself, and this research concept began very close to home for Bell.

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