Tim O'brien
Research Scientist, Shazam R&D at Apple
Palo Alto, California, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolTim O'brien is a research scientist at Shazam R&D and a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford CCRMA who blends deep learning, music information retrieval, and algorithmic composition to push the boundaries of audio and multimedia systems. With 13 years of experience spanning industry internships at Sennheiser and Apple, an early career in equity research at J.P. Morgan, and long-term academic teaching and TA roles at Stanford, he bridges rigorous engineering, research, and pedagogy. His work focuses on applied deep learning for music and audio, generative composition, and improvisational multimedia systems, often informed by a strong foundation in computational physics. An avid guitarist and composer who spent years composing and recording in New York, he brings practical musicianship to technically sophisticated problems. Based in Palo Alto, he combines product-facing R&D at a major consumer-music company with cutting-edge academic research, making him adept at translating novel audio research into real-world features. Notably, his background in both quantitative finance workflows and creative coding gives him a rare fluency across data-driven engineering and artistic systems.
13 years of coding experience
3 years of employment as a software developer
Master’s Degree, Music, Science and Technology, Cumulative GPA 4.116, Master’s Degree, Music, Science and Technology, Cumulative GPA 4.116 at Stanford University - Center for Computer Research in Music and AcousticsScarsdale High SchoolB.S., Major in Physics, concentration in Computational Physics, minor in Anthropology, B.S., Major in Physics, concentration in Computational Physics, minor in Anthropology at University of Virginia
Github Skills (41)
python10
machine-learning10
audio10
deep-learning10
sound-synthesis10
tuner10
faust10
audio-effect10
data-science9
signal-processing9
signal9
puredata9
audiounit9
csharp9
tensorflow9
Programming languages (2)
Github contributions (5)
tsob/cnn-music-structure
Mar 2016 - Mar 2016
Contributions:52 commits, 37 pushes, 1 branch in 8 days
tsob/EighthPlague
Nov 2012 - Dec 2012
An environment for human/computer improvisation.
Contributions:19 commits in 1 month
human-computerimprovisation
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