PhD Student · Computer Science · Dartmouth

Noah
Schaffer

I’m a PhD student in Computer Science at Dartmouth College and a member of the SAHAS Lab, advised by Nikhil Singh. My research focuses on designing Creative AI systems that are interactive, controllable, and interpretable.

Co-creation Controllable generation Interpretable discovery
Portrait of Noah Schaffer

I view AI as a way to enhance and expand the creative workflows of musicians. My work spans music editing, mechanistic interpretability, and control protocols for generation, aiming to bridge the gap between what generative models produce and what musicians actually want.

Before Dartmouth, I completed my BS/MS in Computer Science at Northwestern University, where I worked in the Interactive Audio Lab with Bryan Pardo and Ethan Manilow on source separation and audio enhancement.

Much of this work is inspired by life as a musician. Outside of lab, I am often playing guitar or seeing live music — you'll find me at any Billy Strings show within a three-hour radius. I also spent four years as a member of the Northwestern Drumline.

When I'm not playing, seeing, or researching music, I'm usually hiking or skiing somewhere in New Hampshire or Vermont, roasting coffee, cooking, or attempting to compete in Olympic weightlifting.

Selected publications. For a complete list, see Google Scholar.

2022

1 publication

Music Separation Enhancement with Generative Modeling ISMIR 2022

Proceedings of the 23rd International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference

Paper Website Code
Winter 2026

CSDA 294 · Readings in Digital Arts

Instructor for the Digital Arts reading course for MSDA students.