Music Technology Hackathon: Build the Future of Creative Tools

Ilaria Manco is a Research Scientist in the Magenta team at Google DeepMind. Her research spans generative models and representation learning in the music domain, with a current focus on new forms of musical interaction through controllable, real-time generative models. Ilaria received her PhD from Queen Mary University of London, where she developed audio-language modeling approaches for music understanding, and holds an MSci in physics from Imperial College London. Beyond her research, she is actively involved in the electronic music scene as a DJ, grassroots organizer, and radio host.

Jonathan Rochelle is a product leader and entrepreneur currently building AI-powered music technology at Lutely. He previously led product teams at LinkedIn and Zapier, and earlier at Google he helped shape products including Sheets, Docs, Drive, Forms, Classroom, and Jamboard, bringing collaborative tools to hundreds of millions of people.

Jonathan Wyner is head of artistic technology initiatives for BEATL (Berklee Emerging Artistic Technology Lab), professor of music production and engineering at Berklee College of Music, and an instructor at Berklee Online. He is also the chief engineer at M Works Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts; past president of the Audio Engineering Society (AES); and former education director for iZotope. A musician, performer, producer, and engineer, he has mastered and produced more than 5,000 recordings over the last 40 years, with credits including James Taylor, David Bowie, Aerosmith, Kiri Te Kanawa, Aimee Mann, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Pink Floyd, Josh Groban, Bruce Springsteen, and Nirvana. At BEATL, his work centers on helping artists, educators, and industry leaders engage with AI and other emerging technologies in ways that are grounded in real musical practice and attentive to questions of authorship, identity, and impact. As an advisor to music and technology companies — including iZotope, Suno, Softube, and Moises — he represents the perspective of working musicians and educators in the development of creative tools.

Lillia Betz is the Head of AI R&D at Ableton. Originally from France and with a background in classical music education, she earned a degree in Electronic Production and Design at Berklee College of Music. Having worked as a freelancer in Los Angeles, she joined Ableton ten years ago, where she became Head of Max for Live. In her current position, she continues to drive innovation, focusing on AI’s positive impact on artists and the creative process.

Michele Darling is the chair of the Electronic Production and Design Department at Berklee College of Music. An accomplished sound designer, composer, recording engineer, and educator, she brings a unique combination of professional experience and passion for electronic music and sound design to our jury panel. Darling worked for many years as part of an Emmy Award–winning production team at Sesame Workshop, composing music and creating sound design for Muppets characters. Her career includes sound work for animated television shows such as Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!. She is also a founding member of Aerostatic, composing audio environments for films, installations, and music performances featured in galleries and festivals worldwide.

Christian Steinmetz is a Research Scientist at Suno, where he works on foundational research for large-scale music generation models. He earned his PhD from Queen Mary University of London and has a background in machine learning, audio signal processing, and audio engineering, with a focus on high-quality music and audio production. Previously, he conducted research at Meta, Adobe, Dolby, and Bose. His work centers on building audio technologies that connect research with practical creative tools for musicians and audio creators.

Andreas Jacobi is Co-Founder and CEO of Audiotool, a browser-based music production platform (DAW) with a strong focus on collaboration. Andreas is a serial entrepreneur with deep roots in creative technology. He has co-founded and led multiple companies across Germany and the US — including Make.TV, a cloud-based live video SaaS platform acquired by LTN Global in 2019, where he subsequently served as General Manager. Earlier ventures include dimensional GmbH (acquired by Qvest Media) and HOBNOX, a platform for audio and video creatives that became the direct predecessor to Audiotool. Andreas holds patents in cloud-based video production.

Jean-Baptiste "JB" Thiebaut is CEO of Music Hackspace and Chordline Ventures. He holds a PhD in computer music from Queen Mary University of London and built a career bridging R&D, product, and community in music technology. He has led programmes and teams focused on creative coding and music technology education, supporting thousands of artists and developers to ship new tools, prototypes, and products. His work sits at the intersection of research, hands-on making, and ecosystem building across the global music tech community.