StrumEase

Inspiration

The idea for StrumEase came from both personal experience and empathy. One of our team members, Rudra, plays the guitar and understands how important grip, control, and comfort are when strumming. Another team member, Ava, loves indie rock music and was especially motivated by this project because she knows someone personally with cerebral palsy and has witnessed firsthand the daily challenges and physical limitations they face.

Seeing how these limitations can affect activities that bring joy and self-expression inspired our team to design an assistive device that makes playing music more accessible. Our goal was to create a solution that empowers individuals with spastic cerebral palsy to engage with music more independently and confidently.

What it does

StrumEaser is an assistive device designed to help individuals with spastic cerebral palsy securely and comfortably strum a guitar.

• Stabilizes the thumb and index finger to address thumb-in-palm and wrist flexion deformities
  
• Uses a nylon-based ring to improve grip strength and finger coordination
  
• Includes a reinforced central bar to maintain finger alignment during strumming
  
• Features a built-in banjo-style pick, eliminating the need to attach a pick separately
  
• Enables more consistent, controlled, and accessible guitar playing

How we built it

We began by researching spastic cerebral palsy to understand the specific physical challenges that make holding a guitar pick difficult. After brainstorming multiple concepts, we initially designed a strap-on model that wrapped around the palm. Through evaluation and discussion, we determined that a ring-based design would be more stable and better replicate the feel of a traditional guitar pick.

The final model was created using nylon-based plastic for flexibility, comfort, and durability. A reinforced internal bar was added for strength and finger alignment, while a triangular outer mold securely holds the built-in pick. The model was designed in SolidWorks.

Challenges we ran into

Challenges we had to overcome include:

• Determining which design would be most user-friendly between a strap-on model and a ring-based model
• Figuring out the appropriate radius and width of the ring to ensure comfort and effectiveness for the recipient, using a plastic bottle cap as a reference
• Losing our initial model when SolidWorks crashed before saving, requiring us to rebuild the entire design from scratch

Despite these setbacks, we adapted quickly and improved our design through persistence and teamwork.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

• Creating a user-friendly assistive device in a short timeframe
  
• Conducting in-depth research on spastic cerebral palsy, including understanding the deformities that affect guitar playing
  
• Overcoming technical setbacks and successfully completing a functional model
  
• Completing our first biomedical engineering design project as freshmen
  

What we learned

This project taught us that effective biomedical design requires a strong balance of empathy, research, and collaboration. We learned how to translate medical challenges into engineering design constraints and how small design details can greatly impact usability. Working as a team helped us improve communication, problem-solving, and adaptability, especially when facing unexpected obstacles.

What’s next for Guitar Strummer

Next steps for StrumEase include refining the sizing to accommodate a wider range of hand dimensions and exploring alternative materials to improve comfort and durability. With more time, we would like to prototype the device, test it with users, and iterate on the design based on feedback. Ultimately, we hope Guitar Strummer can help make music more inclusive and accessible for everyone.

Built With

• solidworks