What skills do you need from the next generation of audio engineers? How can we educate students in mastering the evolving tools, technics and technologies that will help them strive in audio industry and research? Finally, how can we best help diverse students from various backgrounds produce innovative musical results as compelling as the musical interfaces they create? With the plethora of possible technological tools to create and produce compositions, sonic design, and instruments, it can be difficult for educators to guide students in discovering the right tool or technological language to support their emerging practice. This challenge requires finding ways to navigate the problem space's different dimensions, including the use of open/closed-ended tools, affordances, learned skills, off-the-shelf vs. custom-made tools, individual skill sets, and acoustics/digital approaches. In this context, we will also discuss the value of a platform and database consistently documenting community-driven audio interface design to inform and inspire students' projects and learning experiences. Such a platform could also serve as a repository to allow researchers and educators to better understand the trends, limitations, and strengths of the field and better engage the next generation of audio engineering/production students.
