Meet Shanker Ganesh Krishnamoorthy, a PhD student at Kaunas University of Technology. You may have seen him and his team at the Hacker Games hackathon in March where he was building and pitching his project – energy harvesting dampers/shock absorber. Shanker wants to develop a shock absorber that can damp vibration and harvest energy from damping. 

This could be used in areas where traditional hydraulic and pneumatic damping is not possible due to extreme temperature and pressure conditions and to provide motion harvested energy, capable of powering sensors and even backing up battery.

Shanker says Hacker Games: Kaunas was a good platform to start the idea and to form a team.

“From there, we went to the second phase by developing the project by scientifically studying its limitations. It resulted in a scientific article, which we  presented in Jaunųjų mokslininkų konferencija Pramonės inžinerija – 2016 KTU: DAMPING FORCE EXPERIENCED INSIDE A ENERGY HARVESTING DAMPER. Then we improved the design and presented it in KTU’s Technorama science fair. There we got some contacts that could help us to develop the project further”, – Shanker tells startuplithuania.com.

However, Shanker suggests he is currently working on the end-of-semester affairs at the university and his team has also put a pause on the project.

"We need to test the product seriously before making further steps in the development. However, we made some progress after the hackathon, actually, it all started from the Hacker Games event”, – Shanker says.

One of the main ideas behind Hacker Games hackathons by Startup Lithuania is encouraging teams to continue working on their projects beyond the event. Or, in other words, seeing prototypes born over the course of weekend turning into viable products, startups and, eventually, million dollar companies!

The next edition of the Hacker Games will take place in Vilnius this weekend! Same three tracks (software, hardware, games), and yet dozens of new opportunities, teams and talents.

Register yours now!