Performance video
Torrents
Composed by David Mao, performed at the MusicOn! + InterArts Festival. Watch on YouTube
I write music, build software that turns math and heartbeats into sound, and teach thousands of younger students.
Based in Pittsburgh, I compose for piano and have won international composition prizes. I published two first-author IEEE papers on how music affects the heart, and I build apps, from a screen-time game on the App Store to an ear-training game for calculus. Since sixth grade I have helped run nonprofits that teach competition math and AI literacy to students in more than twenty countries.
- 2
- First-author IEEE EMBC papers
- 1st
- Odyssey of the Mind World Finals, 2024
- 1st
- Purple Comet, global team rank, 2026
- 99/100
- Donne in Musica, 1st Prize, 2025
- 3,000+
- Students reached through Mathlings
No. 1
Music Compositions
Pianist since age six
Audio
Danse de l'Épaulard
A dance for the orca, heard here as a MIDI rendering of the score.
First Prize
Parry the Rain
At the piano
Performer
I've played piano since I was six. I've earned Superior ratings seven times and completed PMTA Level 6 Theory, and my chamber group was selected for the NYC MusicOn Festival.
No. 2
Tech Projects
Built, shipped, and in use
iOS app · on the App Store
Beddr
Beddr turns time away from your phone into a game. Tap Lock In and Beddr uses Apple's Screen Time API to block the apps you've chosen. Each minute you stay locked in earns a point. Friends create or join competitions with a six-character code. Each one has its own dates and reward and a win rule: top three, top percentage, or a shared team goal. A live leaderboard tracks the race, and a small blob companion wakes up and keeps you company while you focus.
I built it with React Native, Expo and Firebase after interviewing more than 30 students, parents and teachers about distraction triggers, habit formation and phone overuse. I now work with six nonprofits to promote healthier technology habits.
Max/MSP · Arduino · music therapy
Isoyue 鱼咬尾
Isoyue is music written live by your heartbeat. Its name comes from the Chinese folk technique fish bites tail, where each phrase begins on the last note of the one before it. It also builds on the iso principle from music therapy: first match the listener's state, then guide them somewhere calmer.
- An AD8232 heart-monitor board and an Arduino Uno stream the ECG into Max/MSP 250 times a second.
- Isoyue detects each heartbeat and measures heart-rate variability (RMSSD) over a 30-second baseline and a 30-second comparison.
- The ratio between the two sets the starting point: minor and fast (up to 140 BPM), a middle mode, or major and slow (down to 80 BPM).
- Over three minutes, every session moves toward 120 BPM in a major key and stays there.
It builds on my research on neural entrainment with the Vinjamuri Lab and on Chinese five-tone theory.
Web game · Max/RNBO audio
MusePlot
MusePlot is an ear-training game for calculus. It turns a hidden curve into sound. You draw your own curve, play it back, and try to make it sound the same.
Math mode maps slope, the integral and concavity to pitch and volume. Music mode maps the graph to reverb, wave shape and LFO motion through an audio engine I built in Max/RNBO. Each attempt is scored on the curve's mathematical features and feeds an ELO-style rating. There are daily puzzles, practice rounds and guest play, all drawn in a pencil-on-paper style.
No. 3
Research
Computational neuroscience and machine learning
Vinjamuri Lab, University of Maryland, Baltimore County · 9th–12th grade
How music moves the heart
Working with Professor Ramana Vinjamuri, I developed a mathematical-modeling approach to explain how music may influence heartbeat and stress through neural entrainment. The work has produced two first-author papers at IEEE EMBC, the international conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, and it is the scientific basis for Isoyue.
- D. D. Mao and R. Vinjamuri, "Analyzing the effect of music on heart rate modulation," Proceedings of the 48th Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBC, July 2026. Accepted.
- D. D. Mao, A. R. Yin, Y. Deng, Y. Lin, K.-J. Wang, and R. Vinjamuri, "Analyzing the resonant behavior of a single neuron at the subthreshold level," Proceedings of the 47th Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBC, pp. 1–4, July 2025. doi:10.1109/EMBC58623.2025.11253657
Stony Brook University · Summer 2026
Simons Summer Research Program
Admitted to the Simons Summer Research Program, which has a 2% acceptance rate and allows two nominations per school. Under Professor Yuefan Deng, I studied how accurately machine-learning models forecast financial time series and presented a poster at the final symposium. I'm still working with Professor Deng's team and plan to submit a first-author paper to the Regeneron Science Talent Search.
Inspirit AI Scholars · June 2025
NLP + Finance: Algorithmic Trading
I completed the Inspirit AI Scholars program with a project on natural-language processing for algorithmic trading. Our team won Best Presentation, voted the crowd favorite.
No. 4
Programming Competitions
| Competition | Result | Details |
|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley CALICO Gold Brick | #28 of 422 teams worldwide (top 6.6%) | Fall 2025 · #16 of 287 pre-college teams · 38 countries |
| USACO | Gold Division | 2026 · National |
| Cornell University HS Programming Competition | 1st & 2nd Place teams | 2026 & 2025 · National |
| Virginia Tech HS Programming Contest | 2nd & 3rd Place teams | 2025 & 2023 · National |
| Lockheed Martin Code Quest | 2nd Place team, Advanced Division | Pacific Region · 11th grade |
No. 5
Math Competitions
| Competition | Result | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Purple Comet! Math Meet Global 1st | 1st Place team in the world (full-score tie) | 2026 · nearly 3,000 high school teams from 89 countries · also 1st in US and PA |
| AIME | Qualifier, four times | 2022–2025 · National |
| ARML | 2nd Place team, Division B | 2024 · International |
| HMMT Estimathon | 2nd Place team | 2026 · International |
| CMIMC Estimathon | 2nd Place team | 2026 · International |
| CMIMC | 8th Place overall team | 2025 · International |
No. 6
Odyssey of the Mind
STEAM Studio, Division III
First in the world
For the "Classics… Opening Night Antics" problem, our team wrote and staged an original musical. In it, a play's opening night goes wrong, and Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows reviews it as the theater critic. We wrote the script and lyrics and built the props, costumes and backdrops ourselves. I composed the music and played it live on stage, and I did the same again at a second World Finals.
We took first at the Western Pennsylvania Regional, at States, and then at the World Finals.
Interview
On KDKA (CBS News)
Citation
In the press
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette · June 19, 2024"Pine-Richland, North Allegheny and STEAM Studio students take top honors at Odyssey of the Mind World Finals"
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette · March 16, 2024"Odyssey of the Minds regional competition brings out the creativity and brainpower"
No. 7
Video Editing
Scholastic Art & Writing Awards · Film & Animation
A National Silver Medal
My film What Is Consciousness earned a National Silver Medal in Film & Animation, which goes to the top 0.75% of entries. Across 2024 and 2025, my films have also earned two regional Gold Keys and two Honorable Mentions.
Through Palettech, I also edit videos for community organizations, including culture-festival videos and a digital art gallery for the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, Pittsburgh Chapter.
No. 8
Academics
| Honor | Distinction | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Princeton Book Award | School nominee, 1 of 704 (0.14%) | Academic excellence and leadership · 11th grade |
| National Merit | Semifinalist | National |
| College Board National Recognition Program | Award recipient | 2025 · National |
| DECA State Champion | Principles of Marketing | 2025 · ICDC qualifier |
No. 9
Nonprofits
Math, AI, art and technology for the community
501(c)(3) · Co-founder & CFO, now CEO · 6th–12th grade
Mathlings
Mathlings is a competition-math nonprofit that reaches more than 3,000 students in 21 countries through online courses, after-school programs, competitions and summer camps. I helped design its child-centered curriculum, have led and trained more than 170 instructors, and secured a Google Ads grant worth up to $10,000 a month. Mathlings has earned a Youth Entrepreneurship and Finance Association Certificate of Achievement and two Leadership & Innovation Lab Awards.
"I have seen Mathlings grow from the very start, since we began brainstorming names."
David Mao, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 2024
Founder & CEO · 8th–12th grade
Frontier AI
Frontier AI offers free AI education to more than 600 students nationwide. I wrote its curriculum on AI literacy and critical thinking, and we teach real AI applications along with MIT's Day of AI.
Co-founder · 7th–12th grade
Palettech
Palettech is a student-led nonprofit that offers free art and technology services. It has served more than 30 community clients, including theater groups, cultural organizations, a volunteer fire company and a historic cemetery. I've led projects in web development, animation, graphic design and video production.
Get in touch
I'm always glad to talk about music, research or any of the projects here.
Elsewhere
- beddr.appScreen-time competitions with friends
- museplot.appCalculus ear-training game
- Torrents on YouTubePerformance video