Record-Breaking Technorama 2026: 100+ Innovations and 40 Pitch Battle Participants

On 27 May, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) held Technorama 2026 at Santaka Valley, an innovation exhibition with more than two decades of experience bringing together technology developers, start-ups, students, and innovation enthusiasts from across Lithuania.

This year’s event showcased a record number – more than 100 – innovations and prototypes. The highlight of the event was the awards ceremony, during which the creators of the most promising ideas were recognised and shared a prize fund of 12,000 euros.

The Winner, 3D Airspace Monitoring System

The main prize of €1,500, established by KTU, was won by the Thunderclap Labs team, which presented ThunderEye, an advanced optical spatial imaging (voxel) tracking system designed for real-time 3D airspace monitoring. The product’s uniqueness lies in its wide range of applications across various sectors: from defence and civil aviation to agriculture.

Another event partner also noticed the ThunderEye system – KTU’s Artificial Intelligence Competence Centre SustAInLivWork awarded the developers a cash prize of €1,000.

Technorama traditionally also awards the most active project supervisor. This year, the €750 prize established by KTU went to Dr Mikas Binkis, Head of the Department of Software Engineering at the KTU Faculty of Informatics.

A Record Number of Participants in the Pitch Battle

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect leading up to the awards ceremony was the public vote organised by the event’s communications partner, “Lrytas”, during which the public could vote for their favourite innovation.

The People’s Choice Award, established by Lrytas, Rockit and Startup Lithuania, was won by the SafeClip team, which received 1,050 public votes. “SafeClip” is a universal, smart safety device that attaches to a helmet strap and emits an audible warning if the rider starts riding without fastening it.

The winners were awarded tickets to the Startup Fair event and annual subscriptions to ‘Lrytas’.

From Artificial Intelligence to Defence Technologies

This year’s Technorama partners also awarded prizes to the most promising projects in various fields of technology.

The KTU Alumni Association prize went to the team that presented a remotely controlled six-legged robot with an integrated video system, designed for inspecting pipelines in challenging conditions.

Representatives from Festo Lietuva and Unmanned Defence Systems were impressed by the Lockawave System project, which develops secure data encryption solutions for network communications.

ESA BIC Lithuania presented an award to the team that developed glass-based electrodes for gas particle detectors.

The Aardvark Technologies prize went to the Kovarnis team, which presented Meshstream – a portable wireless network system for secure and reliable communication on the move.

The Mars Lietuva prize was awarded to the SIVO project – an innovative modular transport system designed for the efficient transport of EPAL pallets in challenging conditions.

Lemona Electronics awarded the team that presented the smart plant care system LapAI.

All teams that took part in the event and wish to further develop their projects, pursue their commercialisation or set up a business are invited to continue their journey in the incubation programme run by the event organiser – the early-stage start-up incubator KTU Startup Space. More information: https://startupspace-en.ktu.edu/