Playing the guitar is one of those things that everyone wishes they can do – but learning how to play the guitar is not always easy. A team from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez is trying to help wannabe Jimi Hendrixs and Eric Claptons with one aspect of picking up a guitar – tuning it.
Javier Rivera, Eduardo Rodriguez and Jesús Torrado created the automatic guitar tuning system, which won 3rd place at the sixth annual TI Analog Design Contest, winning $5,000.
During the 2012-13 school year, 47 accredited engineering colleges and universities from the U.S. and Canada participated in the TI Analog Design Contest, which attracted over 450 participants. The Engibous Summit, named after former TI chairman and CEO Thomas Engibous, invites top engineering university students to put their design skills to the test. This year, the top 10 finalist teams represented seven universities and presented their projects to a panel of notable TI and guest judges during the three-day event in Dallas.
Anyone can use the automatic guitar tuning system. Just strum the guitar and the system does the rest of the work, including adjusting the strings for you. From there, you are ready to rock out – in tune.
“We have a guitarist in our group, and he’s used to working with newcomers. The biggest problem they have is that too many new guitarists become frustrated with tuning and it being inconvenient. So this system will help them,” said Jesús.
To hear more from Jesús about why he wanted to become an engineer, and to see the automatic tuner in action, just watch the video below. And stay “tuned” for more videos and stories from the second and first place winners.
