The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, with the support of the James A. and Faith Knight Foundation, initiated a research program to develop curricular and co-curricular music technology programs for at-risk teenage girls. The research project, a component of Project Lovelace (Simoni, 2003), is named in honor of the contributions of the female mathematician Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, who in 1842 predicted that computers could be used for musical composition (Roads, 1996) .

Project Lovelace is designed to promote creativity and foster positive self esteem through music technology while developing critical reasoning skills and nurturing cognitive development. The University of Michigan, long committed to excellence through diversity, strives to bolster the contributions of girls and women in the field of music technology. The performing and creative arts are the soul and spirit of our culture and are historically significance to our humanity. By fostering creative expression in teenage girls, their aspirations are given voice through music so that their lives radiate hope through personal accomplishment.

Project Lovelace Goals:

• Assess the learning communities in a regional public school and a teen drop-in center to determine the most effective pedagogy that facilitates creative self-expression among girls that use music technology.
   
• In consultation with a regional public school and a teen drop-in center, design, develop, and deliver learning modules that foster creative expression through music technology.
   
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the learning modules.
   
• Disseminate learning resources via World-Wide Web (WWW).
   
• Document the project outcomes and share these outcomes with relevant institutions and agencies as a means of sustaining gender equity in music technology and other learning situations.