In 1961, Stuart programmed Iowa State University's Cyclone computer, a derivative of the ILLIAC, to play simple, recognizable tunes through an amplified speaker that had been attached to the system originally for administrative and diagnostic purposes.
A recording of an interview with Stuart and his computer music was broadcast nationally on the National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network program Monitor on February 10, 1962.
In a subsequent interview with the Harold Journal, Navel Hunsaker, head of the Utah State University mathematics department, said of Stuart, "He always was a whiz with calculators."
From the late 1970s, Stuart mentored John Carlsen, who later contributed to the rapid growth of personal computer (PC) sound-card maker Media Vision and to SigmaTel.
Stuart conceived installing battery-operated real-time clocks into computers, for which he received royalty payments until nearly 2000.