Dr Giacomo Novembre presents to Cabramatta High School students

The MARCS Institute recently hosted visiting students from Cabramatta High School as part of the STEPS@UWS program. 

Around 50 students visited the MARCS Institute's Bankstown labs on Thursday 7 May, where Dr Giacomo Novembre demonstrated some of the research conducted at MARCS Institute. 

Dr Novembre is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Music Cognition and Action research program. 

Generally, he is interested in the cognitive and neural underpinnings of non-verbal human communication, moreover how certain properties of music (e.g. rhythm, beat, loudness) can induce motor processes (in a listener) that evolve according to the temporal profile of music itself. Giacomo demonstrated some equipment we use in this program, including one of his current projects, and discussed with the students how and why we use such equipment, and some practical applications where this research is beneficial. 

STEPS@UWS is a Widening Participation program at UWS which partners with high schools across Greater Western Sydney and works with students in Years 10–12. 

The aim of the visit was to provide Western Sydney high school students with a small glimpse into some of the facilities at UWS, opening their minds to different options to studying, and showing that there's facilities at UWS to help with research.

You can visit the Music Cognition and Action page for more information on this type of research.