“Yuru” is a Japanese term that roughly translates to “relaxed.” Yuru Musical Instruments are musical instruments that anyone can easily play even without training in music. When Sony India and Sony Japan organised Yuru Musical Instrument Hackathon, a unique hackathon, in which they expected participants to create prototypes of casual musical instruments that can be played by anyone without prior knowledge and training in music. Participants were expected to create Musical instruments using Sony’s robotic toys toio TM and MESH TM as well as IoT board computer Spresense TM along with other 3 rd party electronic components, modules, boards, sensors, actuators etc.
One of the two teams from IIIT Bangalore not only bagged first place with a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 but they had a gamifying experience. Neha Tamhanakar, a student from the winning team says, “This was a unique hackathon, as we were required to create a new musical instrument, where to a large extent, the work involved hardware. It was a new domain to work in and we learnt a lot while making the instrument called ‘Chordizlla’, a guitar. Designing a new instrument was a fun and creative process, and we enjoyed it as it was something new and out of the box. Overall, it was a great experience!” Other winners of the team were Barath Narayan, Nitheezkant R, M Srinivasan and Ketaki Tamhanakar.
Yuru Musical Instrument Hackathon was conducted on March 11 & 12 in Bangalore. This hackathon comprised two rounds. In the first round, participants were required to submit the idea of their instrument, along with a brief description of the working, technical aspects and structure of the instrument.
Both teams from IIIT Bangalore got selected for the final round, which consisted of the top 12 teams. In this round, participants were required to make a working prototype of their instrument and present it on the final day, 12 March 2023. The judging panel consisted of members of SONY Japan, SONY India, YURU Music (Japan), and IIT Madras.
This hackathon had 2 rounds. In the first round, participants were required to submit the idea of their instrument, along with a brief description of the working, technical aspects and structure of the instrument. The students were mentored by Prof. Dr.Madhav Rao and Prof. Dr.Jyotsna Bapat.
Both teams from IIIT Bangalore got selected for the final round, which consisted of the top 12 teams. In this round, participants were required to make a working prototype of their instrument and present it on the final day, 12 March 2023. The judging panel consisted of members of SONY Japan, SONY India, YURU Music (Japan), and IIT Madras.
The second team from IIIT Bangalore were Karanveer Singh, Saket Gurjar, Aamod BK and Shreyansh Rai.
