{"378881":{"#nid":"378881","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Hackathon helps students invent musical instruments","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA distorted commotion of sounds filled the room. Electronic scratches, drum beats and eerie echoes flowed from the musical instruments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAbout 50 Georgia Tech students hammered, drilled and plucked strings as they raced to put the finishing touches on the devices they created.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe students participated in the inaugural Guthman Musical Instrument Design Challenge, sponsored by synthesizer maker Moog and the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts. The event added a student component to this week\u2019s annual \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.guthman.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EMargaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition\u003C\/a\u003E, which seeks to find the world\u2019s best new ideas in musical instrument design, engineering and musicianship.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt was important for us to expand the focus of the Guthman Competition toward our own campus and our own students,\u201d said Gil Weinberg, director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology. \u201cA student challenge, combined with an opportunity for students to present their inventions as part of the competition, seemed like the perfect way to do that.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents spent about a month designing their musical creations and added the electronic elements Sunday during an eight-hour hackathon. Each of the 15 teams received sensors, Arduino boards and Moog Werkstatt kits to hack, manipulate and add to the base instrument.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERaja Raman, a master\u2019s student in music technology, belonged to a three-member team that created the \u201cVCG\u201d instrument, which looks like a guitar but incorporates a breath controller that functions similarly to woodwind instruments. To play it, a musician breathes into a tube attached to the instrument\u2019s body and runs his fingers along ribbon sensors placed along the guitar neck.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe wanted to create something that was truly playable and fun,\u201d Raman said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team succeeded and won the first place prize of $1,500.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI was blown away by what the students created in a short period of time,\u201d said Michael Adams, CEO of Moog Music and one of the judges.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe other judges were: Aaron Lanterman, a Georgia Tech professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering who specializes in digital signal processing; and Lee Lerner, a research scientist with the Georgia Tech Research Institute.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAll 15 teams will present their instruments this Friday during the main Guthman Competition. That contest will be held Thursday and Friday at the Klaus Advanced Computing Building on campus.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBefore the hackathon students spent hours designing their instruments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESome constructed instruments using 3D printing, welding and other methods found in Georgia Tech\u2019s Invention Studio, a student-run design-build-play space that offers students access to cutting-edge machines.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOther students scavenged dumpsters, yards and attics to turn found items into instruments. One team used part of an abandoned bike. Another group added sensors, an accelerometer and Bluetooth technology to a clear beach ball.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESome instruments resembled a Frankenstein assembly of parts. But that was part of the charm.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cA lot of work went into the design,\u201d said Collin Garnett, a second-year architecture major. \u201cThis was probably one of my favorite projects.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Inaugural Guthman Musical Instrument Design Challenge was sponsored by Moog and the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAbout 50 Georgia Tech students competed in the first ever Guthman Musical Instrument Design Challenge, sponsored by synthesizer maker Moog and the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts. The event added a student component to this week\u2019s annual Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, which seeks to find the world\u2019s best new ideas in musical instrument design, engineering and musicianship.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Design challenge added a student component to the annual Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition"}],"uid":"27918","created_gmt":"2015-02-16 15:10:39","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:02:42","author":"Laura Diamond","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-02-17T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2015-02-17T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"378841":{"id":"378841","type":"image","title":"The VCG","body":null,"created":"1449246214","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:23:34","changed":"1475894344","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:39:04","alt":"The VCG","file":{"fid":"75225","name":"resizedoboeguitar.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/resizedoboeguitar.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/resizedoboeguitar.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":372774,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/resizedoboeguitar.jpg?itok=ilTzw57l"}},"378871":{"id":"378871","type":"image","title":"Student design challenge","body":null,"created":"1449246214","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:23:34","changed":"1475894388","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:39:48","alt":"Student design challenge","file":{"fid":"75227","name":"bikestudentsworking.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bikestudentsworking.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bikestudentsworking.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":7190866,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/bikestudentsworking.jpg?itok=BZQSchIG"}},"378851":{"id":"378851","type":"image","title":"Puppet makes music","body":null,"created":"1449246214","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:23:34","changed":"1475894385","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:39:45","alt":"Puppet makes music","file":{"fid":"75226","name":"resizedpuppet.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/resizedpuppet.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/resizedpuppet.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":284019,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/resizedpuppet.jpg?itok=gP8rYSjI"}},"329631":{"id":"329631","type":"image","title":"Guthman logo","body":null,"created":"1449245090","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:04:50","changed":"1475895041","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:41","alt":"Guthman logo","file":{"fid":"201829","name":"guthman_big_photo.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/guthman_big_photo.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/guthman_big_photo.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":37586,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/guthman_big_photo.jpg?itok=l604E9EL"}}},"media_ids":["378841","378871","378851","329631"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/guthman.gatech.edu\/","title":"Competition Submission Site"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"42891","name":"Georgia Tech Arts"},{"id":"42951","name":"Student Art"},{"id":"148","name":"Music and Music Technology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1936","name":"Center for Music Technology"},{"id":"1179","name":"Guthman Competition"},{"id":"118851","name":"Moog"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"},{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"},{"id":"71901","name":"Society and Culture"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELaura Diamond\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["laura.diamond@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}