More than four million Americans over the age of 50 live with low vision, and nearly 2.5 million live with both vision and hearing impairments. This can make everyday situations, like crossing a busy street or walking through an airport, incredibly difficult. As a research assistant at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Andre DeGrenier (MM ’25, Computer Music), played a linchpin role in developing therapies and tools to help these people live safer, more comfortable lives.
As Peabody gains traction in building out its own research enterprise, DeGrenier began working as a student researcher with Yingzi Xiong, the Barbara Simerl Rising Professor of Low Vision in the Wilmer Eye Institute, when he was a first-year master’s student in computer music at Peabody.
Specifically, DeGrenier was recruited to support a project that focused on analyzing audiovisual recordings from different cities in Europe. The work aimed to establish a metric for environmental complexity that specialists in orientation and mobility could use in rehabilitation and interventions for people with low vision.
More than four million Americans over the age of 50 live with low vision, and nearly 2.5 million live with both vision and hearing impairments. This can make everyday situations, like crossing a busy street or walking through an airport, incredibly difficult. As a research assistant at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Andre DeGrenier (MM ’25, Computer Music), played a linchpin role in developing therapies and tools to help these people live safer, more comfortable lives.
As Peabody gains traction in building out its own research enterprise, DeGrenier began working as a student researcher with Yingzi Xiong, the Barbara Simerl Rising Professor of Low Vision in the Wilmer Eye Institute, when he was a first-year master’s student in computer music at Peabody.
Specifically, DeGrenier was recruited to support a project that focused on analyzing audiovisual recordings from different cities in Europe. The work aimed to establish a metric for environmental complexity that specialists in orientation and mobility could use in rehabilitation and interventions for people with low vision.
The project required specialized knowledge of acoustics for evaluating scenes and expertise in audiovisual presentation for recreating those scenes in the lab—skills that aligned with DeGrenier’s expertise in computer music.
“Coming from a mostly musical background, everything I’m doing is composition-focused or sound synthesis,” DeGrenier says. “Being able to apply those techniques to an actual real-world project that can make a difference for people was really interesting to me.”
As the primary technician for Xiong’s XYZ Sensory Lab, DeGrenier worked to produce 360-degree immersive spatial environments using surround-sound speakers and a visual projection system to replicate everyday situations. In these test spaces, patients with low vision (who may also have hearing loss) take part in sensory training designed to help improve their mobility through everyday life.
Through observation and patient feedback, the team learns how to create the most effective protocols for patient training and what tools clinicians can implement in their practices. In one study currently under way, the lab is looking at how clinicians can equip low-vision patients with wearable devices like Meta Ray-Ban glasses to help them better identify objects around them.
Last year, DeGrenier joined members of the Xiong Lab at the annual Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology conference. He presented a poster about the metrics his team developed as part of the environmental complexity study while colleagues shared results from other projects under way.
He found the process of presenting similar to his extensive experience as a musician. “It felt a lot like preparing for performances, so I was able to apply my skills as a performer—like being able to deal with nerves—to being a presenter,” he says.
After graduating from Peabody in May 2025, DeGrenier transitioned to a temporary full-time role with the Xiong Lab. Through March 2026, he worked to help renovate their lab, thanks to a gift from former Johns Hopkins Medicine Trustee and Vice Chair Michael Hankin and his wife, Ann.
Although he’s started on a different career path than what he envisioned when he began hisPeabody degree, it’s one in which he sees a natural connection.
“I really enjoy being able to recreate audio and visuals as realistically as possible,” he says. “Before, it may have been to recreate a feeling in music, now it’s about finding a sound—like this specific car, or this specific person—and to do it accurately, to help patients.”