Mikel Gainza, PhD, BSc (Eng)
Music Software Entrepreneur
As a society, we must nurture lifelong learning, mental stimulation, and curiosity, whilst supporting experts to explore and validate innovative solutions.
Current Work
Mikel is the Principal Investigator of the Andante project at Trinity College Dublin, which aims to build an app that uses the motivational power of music to help older adults improve their walking activity and prevent falls. He also co-founded GuitarApp, a startup dedicated to making music learning and teaching more accessible and engaging through free interactive tools for educators and schools worldwide.
Personal Hero
My mother
Words of Strength
Creating and building relationships
Vision
To reduce dementia's impact by nurturing lifelong learning and curiosity, fostering collaborations that translate scientific discoveries into real-world solutions beyond academia.
Strategy
Through the Andante project, Mikel is investigating how the motivational power of music can improve walking activity and prevent falls in older adults, with applications in both rehabilitation settings and everyday mobility. At GuitarApp, he focuses on making music learning and teaching as accessible as possible. Music engagement and physical activity can significantly impact cognitive resilience, potentially reducing dementia risk factors and supporting overall brain health across the lifespan.
Impact
Mikel aims to leverage collective knowledge and global connections, like the Atlantic Fellows network, to scale solutions beyond academic settings. The Andante project specifically targets physical mobility improvement in older adults, whether for physical rehabilitation or maintaining activity levels, while GuitarApp's approach to accessible music learning creates opportunities for cognitive engagement. Both leverage the universal power of music that can reach communities worldwide, regardless of resources or location.
Motivation
The statistics on falls among older adults are devastating - with 1 in 4 older adults falling each year, contributing to 700k deaths worldwide and enormous clinical costs. By developing in-home digital health solutions that harness the motivational power of music, Andante strives to reduce the burden on healthcare systems while making effective interventions accessible to all. Additionally, GuitarApp aims to lower the over 90% failure rate in learning to play an instrument, thereby boosting cognitive engagement
Education & Experience
Mikel's career path combines academic and entrepreneurial backgrounds. It all started with the Audio Research Group, an academic research centre he co-founded that became a hub for audio research for up to 14 post-doctoral researchers and post-grad students.
Following this, Mikel co-founded three startups at the intersection of music and technology. RiffStation grew to serve millions of guitar players before becoming part of Fender Musical Instruments. More recently, GuitarApp was founded to democratize access to quality music education.
In 2023, Mikel returned to academia at Trinity College Dublin to become an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health.
Send
Mikel
a NoteHave ideas for global brain health or a collaboration? I would love to hear from you. Feel free to send an introductory note.
