About Dr. Hugh Lobel
Dr. Hugh Lobel
is a developer living in Houston, Texas, who crafts personal and expressive experiences in the form of websites, web apps, and multimedia software.
Web Development
Hugh joined Acclaro Design as a web developer in 2013. Hugh has built websites and web apps for small-to-medium sized companies around the United States, using a variety of popular tool stacks. His continued interest in exploration has lead Hugh to familiarize himself not just with industry standard tools like WordPress, NodeJS, React, SQL and MongoDB, but has also led him to building projects with AWS, Hugo, Gatsby, and other cutting-edge technology.
Music Software Development
Since 2008, Hugh has worked on a variety of development projects. Research work at the University of Texas saw him developing a system for real-time analysis of live music performances that was used in an AI improvisation partner system. In Boulder, Hugh worked with a startup to build software for interactive headphone technology that aimed to revolutionize the way we embody the music listening experience. With his ongoing MSDP project, Hugh develops and distributes a free and open-source platform for Multimedia Synthesis, Design, and Performance. MSDP is his largest project to date, boasting an international user-base, and is a featured program in a variety of experimental arts programs in universities around the world.
So, what's with the Doctor thing?
Hugh's first endeavor in the arts (and yes, development is an art!) was as a composer of music. Hugh's dedication to learning led him to the decision to attain a doctorate in composition - his love of technology convinced him to make music that blended live instruments with electronic components. During his studies and after, Hugh taught music in private lessons and classrooms. He held a full-time position as an educator at the University of Colorado, Boulder for several years.
How does that background lead to development?
Well, remember that bit about a love of technology and dedication to learning? Combine those things with a compulsion towards tinkering and experimentation, and it didn't take long before Hugh began writing his own software to help bring his music to life. Building software felt a lot like composing music - in fact, Hugh found that he was going through the same processes to tackle projects in both domains:
- Identify a challenge
- Consider various routes to a solution before determining the best route
- Break down the process into smaller steps to tackle
- Work on each step towards a first draft
- Procure meaningful peer review while iterating on individual steps
- After thorough reviews, present the project to a test group for feedback
- Review feedback and make final revisions before launching the project into the wild
Of course, Hugh would have used different terminology to describe this process before he broke into the development world, but the process was there none-the-less. With all of these commonalities, Hugh was still a bit surprised by how much he enjoyed coding. By the end of one semester of a language class in his Masters program, Hugh found a way to work full-time as research assistant, creating code with several of his professors. From there, Hugh was hooked.