{"id":103004,"date":"2025-07-01T16:33:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T16:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=103004"},"modified":"2025-07-01T16:33:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T16:33:52","slug":"for-uri-engineering-student-music-and-technology-harmonize-in-innovative-capstone-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/for-uri-engineering-student-music-and-technology-harmonize-in-innovative-capstone-project\/","title":{"rendered":"For 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering student, music and technology harmonize in innovative capstone project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 1, 2025 \u2013 The rigidity of mathematics and the creativity of music might not initially appear to go hand in hand. Brian May \u2014 the Queen guitarist and noted astrophysicist \u2014 would likely disagree and he\u2019d have some support from another guitarist in the College of Engineering<\/a> at the 溏心vlog免费B站. North Providence native Ahmad Almuhtaseb \u201926, discovered a way to merge his dual passions\u2014music and his computer engineering major.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almuhtaseb and two classmates collaborated on a project to build a custom circuit board that functions as an amplifier for musical instruments. The project was in partnership with XMOS<\/a>, a semiconductor company based in Bristol, England, as part of his senior capstone project.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electrical and computer engineering students at 溏心vlog免费B站 are required to take part in a capstone project<\/a>. Students are assigned into groups to work from a list of proposals submitted by industry partners. This year, 53 students worked on 19 projects in the College of Engineering. The program provides seniors with an immersive hands-on experience collaborating with industry partners that can ultimately lead to job opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Almuhtaseb, the potential partnership was an ideal fusion of his love for music and his fascination with computer hardware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was the only capstone proposal that was directly related to music and all the computer stuff that I was interested in,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the back of my mind, it just felt like it perfectly united the two things that I was most passionate about as somebody who does computer engineering and somebody who likes to play guitar and mess with amps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI pretty much poured my heart into the passion statement that coordinators use to place students into a particular project and, fortunately, I ended up getting picked!\u201d said Almuhtaseb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating and building things has always been a part of Almuhtaseb\u2019s life. When he was a junior at North Providence High School, Almuhtaseb and his friends built their own computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What captivated him wasn\u2019t just the components, but how they interacted seamlessly. He also found himself drawn to the visual outcome\u2014the screen. He recalls being fascinated by how thousands of pixels could come together to form a single image. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was sitting there putting everything together, I was wondering how all these different components fit together to create this machine, especially since computer technology drives the modern world,\u201d said Almuhtaseb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it came time to choose a college, Almuhtaseb selected 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s computer engineering program for exactly that reason: his love of computer electronics and their importance in modern society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he\u2019d tried his hand at guitar a few years earlier, it wasn\u2019t until 2020, that his passion for music and composition began to harmonize. During the pandemic, with more time on his hands, he found himself drawn back to the instrument. He grabbed the pick and guitar and tried again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s been my primary outlet for the past three or four years,\u201d said Almuhtaseb. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when the time came for him to put his musical talents and his affection for all things electronic together, he jumped at the opportunity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first step in the capstone project was determining how to adapt XMOS\u2019 existing hardware into something that could take in, process, and put out musical notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe needed to break down this board and see what we could take out of it but still allow it to function,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe needed the bare basics\u2014so just an input, output, and a processor to be able to read and interpret the data sent in from an instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with looking at the hardware, Almuhtaseb also had to create a schematic. But first, he needed to understand amp technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter extensive research, I was able to jump into making some simulations on circuit boards using engineering software,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through these simulations, Almuhtaseb tested whether the hardware could receive inputs from a guitar and accurately reproduce different cords and notes. His experience as a guitarist and knowing the nuances of each note, their frequency, and how it\u2019s supposed to sound helped the project become a success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using simulation software Almuhtaseb was able to compare soundwaves that were pumped into the board, analyzed by the processor, and pumped out of the board. What he found was the soundwaves were similar, proving that his concept to create a functioning amplifier worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was the most fun I ever had working on a project because not only did my background in engineering help me but also my background in music,\u201d he said. \u201cFor example, I was able to identify pitches by ear and use that to approximate the frequency of a repeating sine wave.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some may see music and math as incompatible, Almuhtaseb sees them as deeply connected. Whether he\u2019s designing an amplifier or composing music, he believes both pursuits are rooted in creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s something May would agree with. It took him 30 years to get his Ph.D. The reason for the gap was the fact that he was touring with the likes of Freddie Mercury. However the aging guitarist who built his own guitar as a teen\u2014 and later his own telescope\u2014 credits his musical talent<\/a> and time touring the world, in helping him finally finish his studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do think there’s a lot of overlap between people involved in art and people involved in engineering. Not just in music, but in painting and literature, I think people are driven by this desire to create,\u201d said Almuhtaseb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almuhtaseb is part of the International Engineering Program and is on track to go to Kyushu University in Japan this fall. As part of the program, he\u2019ll first study abroad at the and then take part in an internship at a Japanese engineering company. Almuhtaseb will graduate with a dual bachelor\u2019s degree in computer engineering and Global Language and Area Studies in the Japanese track.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 1, 2025 \u2013 The rigidity of mathematics and the creativity of music might not initially appear to go hand in hand. Brian May \u2014 the Queen guitarist and noted astrophysicist \u2014 would likely disagree and he\u2019d have some support from another guitarist in the College of Engineering at the University of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":103005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25,1906,1915],"class_list":["post-103004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-engineering","tag-experiential-learning","tag-undergraduate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103004"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103007,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103004\/revisions\/103007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}