Education
MIT (PhD Candidate | MSc Media Arts and Sciences)
ETH Zurich (MSc & BSc Information Technology and Electrical Engineering)
About
I’m a PhD Candidate at the MIT Media Lab in the Viral Communications Group, who had the privilege of being mentored by Dr. Andy Lippman, Dr. Paul Liang, Dr. Anna Huang, and previously by Dr. François Pachet and Dr. Joaquin Quiñonero-Candela.
My current focus is to distribute Neural Notes, an online platform for real-time human–AI and human–human musical improvisation.
My past research involved mixed reality, machine learning, natural language processing, sound computing, computer vision, affective computing and distributed real-time systems. I derive insights from multimedia to architect scalable socio-technological systems, build mobile/web apps and create immersive AR/XR/VR experiences. My pre-PhD portfolio features web, mobile and mixed reality apps.
Throughout my time as a graduate student career, I have led more than 40 MIT, Harvard and Wellesley undergraduates – both individually and in groups of up to 14 – across projects involving API development, software architecture, data visualization, evaluation of machine learning models for complex datasets, and mobile app development. I prefer to lead through influence rather than authority, and I particularly enjoy empowering students and watching them grow as engineers and designers.
I’m also a passionate Jazz pianist, arranger and composer. Thanks to my involvement with the Jazz program at MIT (MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble, MIT CMS Combos) I had the privilege to perform alongside Miguel Zenon, Luis Perdomo, Evan Ziporyn, Lihi Haruvi, Lupe Fiasco, Sean Jones, Anat Cohen, Melissa Aldana, Terri Lyne Carrington, Sara Serpa, Luciana Souza, Edu Ribeiro, Braxton Cook, Djuena Tikuna, Ian Coury. As a MIT Emerson/Harris Jazz Fellow and Scholar, I was able to study under Grammy-winner Luis Perdomo and Douglas Johnson at Berklee College of Music. In 2024, I released a vinyl record Mahesa-dhama with Eduardo De La Calle and Jose Barba under The Torus Trio.
Fun facts: I was a Swiss Youth Champion for 100 meter breaststroke (age 13 category) and I’m proud of still holding a Swiss Youth Record from more than 20 years ago. In total, I broke five Swiss Youth Records. Around the same time, I represented Switzerland at the World Youth Chess Championship in Belfort (2005) and finished 34 out of 125. My peak Swiss ELO was 2058 at the age of 12.
[Last Update: Dec 1, 2025]
Mike Hao Jiang 