Composer and violinist Charles Nichols, an assistant professor of composition and creative technologies in the School of Performing Arts, presented his composition, “Traffic SONATA,” for amplified violin, oud, and qanun, sonified traffic data, and traffic simulations on November 1 at the National Conference of the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities, which was held at the University of Georgia Center in Athens, Georgia.

The piece is a collaboration between Nichols, transportation engineer and oudist Monty Abbas, qanunist Anne Elise Thomas, and transportation engineer Qichao Wang.