⚡️ Kicking off our deep dive into the winners of the "Innovation Workshop 2025"!
Today, we're introducing you to the winner in the nomination "Best Project of the Innovation Workshop 2025" — an intelligent inflatable jacket for motorcyclists. A team of five Skoltech students created a prototype of a vest that can inflate instantly upon impact, protecting a rider's chest, spine, and vital organs.
We spoke with the team to learn why they chose this idea, what technologies they used, and how they see the future of their project.
From Idea to Prototype
The project's inspiration came from Professor Andreas Panayi of the Skoltech Center for Systems Engineering, who once shared a story about his daughter falling from a horse. This story inspired the students to create a device that could protect riders. Thus, the idea for a smart protective jacket with an automatic activation system was born, which later evolved into a project focused on protecting motorcyclists in the event of a fall.
How It Works
The jacket is equipped with accelerometers and gyroscopes that track motion in real-time. A smart algorithm detects a fall and activates a pneumatic system with a CO₂ cartridge. The airbag inflates in under 200 milliseconds—faster than you can blink! This project is a true blend of electronics, sensors, pneumatics, control systems, and intelligent algorithms.
Sleepless Engineering Nights
Before every demo day, the team spent late nights in the "FabLab and Workshop" shared center, testing, fixing, and refining their design.
The Skoltech master's students now plan to adapt their technology for other extreme sports, such as skiing, horse riding, and ATV riding.
Let's wish our master's students the best of luck, and we'll be following their future successes! ✨
Today, we're introducing you to the winner in the nomination "Best Project of the Innovation Workshop 2025" — an intelligent inflatable jacket for motorcyclists. A team of five Skoltech students created a prototype of a vest that can inflate instantly upon impact, protecting a rider's chest, spine, and vital organs.
We spoke with the team to learn why they chose this idea, what technologies they used, and how they see the future of their project.
From Idea to Prototype
"We started the workshop with a ton of ideas—around nine in total!" the team shares. "We listed them all out, debated a bit, and then decided to score them together based on three main criteria: novelty, startup potential, and real-world usefulness—something that could actually help people."
The project's inspiration came from Professor Andreas Panayi of the Skoltech Center for Systems Engineering, who once shared a story about his daughter falling from a horse. This story inspired the students to create a device that could protect riders. Thus, the idea for a smart protective jacket with an automatic activation system was born, which later evolved into a project focused on protecting motorcyclists in the event of a fall.
How It Works
The jacket is equipped with accelerometers and gyroscopes that track motion in real-time. A smart algorithm detects a fall and activates a pneumatic system with a CO₂ cartridge. The airbag inflates in under 200 milliseconds—faster than you can blink! This project is a true blend of electronics, sensors, pneumatics, control systems, and intelligent algorithms.
Sleepless Engineering Nights
Before every demo day, the team spent late nights in the "FabLab and Workshop" shared center, testing, fixing, and refining their design.
"We tested five different designs (and broke a few along the way). Our sixth design, which we presented at the final Innovation Workshop, worked perfectly—and it's the one that earned us the Best Prototype Award!" the team recalls.
The Skoltech master's students now plan to adapt their technology for other extreme sports, such as skiing, horse riding, and ATV riding.
"We're also thinking about creating a version for elderly people, where an automatic inflatable vest could reduce injuries from falls. The potential applications are massive!"
Let's wish our master's students the best of luck, and we'll be following their future successes! ✨
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🆕 Skoltech researchers have investigated the way the composition of small molecules called lipids and metabolites varies in the brain in the first hours and days after death. This research was published in the journal Biomolecules and was supported by the Russian Science Foundation.
Looking at samples from humans, mice, and rats, the study considered the levels of nearly 1,000 small molecules. By showing most of them to be fairly stable over the first 48 hours and documenting the transformations undergone by the rest, the work opens the way for further research that could establish the brain-based molecular footprint of schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and other mental and neurological disorders, whose underlying biology remains poorly understood.
Marina Zavolskova, a research intern and a PhD student of the Life Sciences program at Skoltech “Lipids and metabolites, too, could be of use. For example, our colleagues recently reported headway in measuring the lipid levels in the blood of patients with schizophrenia and depression, but analyzing brain tissue is more challenging, because you only get the sample after the death of a patient, and you never know which of the observed effects are due to the disease and which are due to tissue decay. Well, you do know the latter now.”
Looking at samples from humans, mice, and rats, the study considered the levels of nearly 1,000 small molecules. By showing most of them to be fairly stable over the first 48 hours and documenting the transformations undergone by the rest, the work opens the way for further research that could establish the brain-based molecular footprint of schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and other mental and neurological disorders, whose underlying biology remains poorly understood.
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🆕 Researchers from Skoltech and HSE University have developed a photovoltaic cell for powering wireless temperature and humidity sensors that does not require recharging. The development was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), and the results were published in the journal Applied Physics Letters.
Such devices could become an eco-friendly alternative to traditional power sources—a safe replacement for batteries containing toxic substances like mercury and cadmium.
"In this work, we demonstrated that a perovskite-based photovoltaic cell, when properly protected from the environment, can effectively function as a charger for wireless sensors. This opens up new possibilities for the application of perovskite photovoltaic cell, which can utilize not only solar energy but also artificial light. In the future, we plan to develop a photovoltaic cell integrated with a supercapacitor into a single device," says Alexandra Boldyreva, a Research Scientist at the Skoltech Center for Energy Science and Technology, Candidate of Chemical Sciences, and principal investigator of the RSF-funded project.
Such devices could become an eco-friendly alternative to traditional power sources—a safe replacement for batteries containing toxic substances like mercury and cadmium.
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🤩 After completing the "Innovation Workshop" course, Skoltech students took part in a major rite of passage: their freshman initiation!
They faced ten challenges and solved puzzles prepared by senior students. The new students dove headfirst into a thrilling atmosphere of mystery, showcasing their quick wits and strong team spirit. And to top off the evening, they took part in a secret ritual... the detailsof which shall remain undisclosed.🤫
They faced ten challenges and solved puzzles prepared by senior students. The new students dove headfirst into a thrilling atmosphere of mystery, showcasing their quick wits and strong team spirit. And to top off the evening, they took part in a secret ritual... the details
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🌍 From Daejeon to Prague: Skoltech scientists and experts are actively representing the Institute at major international conferences and forums.
📍Russia
— In Gelendzhik, at the “Bioprom: Industry and Technology for Humans” international forum, Natalia Podsosonnaya, the deputy director for development of the Neuro Center, spoke at a session on anti-aging technologies. She shared Skoltech's experience in engaging interdisciplinary teams to create cutting-edge scientific developments and emphasized the importance of collaboration between science and business. In the forum's exhibition area, Natalia presented the Skoltech project NeurOmix — the first system for diagnosing mental disorders via blood analysis.
— In Tambov, Skoltech Professor Albert Nasibulin and PhD students from the Photonics Center took part in the sixth International Conference on Graphene and Related Structures, where they presented their research on carbon nanomaterials and nanotubes.
— In Moscow, at the second International Congress “Humanities vs Sciences & the Knowledge Accelerating in Modern World: Parallels and Interaction”, Artem Oganov, who heads the Skoltech Materials Discovery Laboratory, co-moderated a session on art restoration and materials science, opening it with his presentation on the nature of color in substances. Junior Research Scientist Dmitry Bezmarternykh from the Neuro Center spoke about using brain connectivity models for neurofeedback in emotion regulation.
📍Czech Republic
In Prague, Skoltech PhD students Danil Gusak, Nikita Sukhorukov, Anna Volodkevich, and Veronika Ivanova participated in the 19th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (CORE rating A), presenting their research results in the field of recommender systems and user data analysis.
📍Austria
In Vienna, at the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Research Scientist Miguel Altamirano Cabrera from the Engineering Center's Intelligent Space Robotics Laboratory presented three papers — spanning topics from robot control to neural activity analysis and multimodal feedback systems.
📍South Korea
In Daejeon, Skoltech PhD students Ekaterina Antipushina and Ruslan Kalimullin delivered presentations at MICCAI 2025, a leading international conference in medical artificial intelligence. Ekaterina presented the pyOpenNFT framework for real-time ML neurofeedback, while Ruslan introduced the CSTNet generative model for transforming EEG data into ECoG data, opening new possibilities for precise diagnosis of brain activity.
📍Russia
— In Gelendzhik, at the “Bioprom: Industry and Technology for Humans” international forum, Natalia Podsosonnaya, the deputy director for development of the Neuro Center, spoke at a session on anti-aging technologies. She shared Skoltech's experience in engaging interdisciplinary teams to create cutting-edge scientific developments and emphasized the importance of collaboration between science and business. In the forum's exhibition area, Natalia presented the Skoltech project NeurOmix — the first system for diagnosing mental disorders via blood analysis.
— In Tambov, Skoltech Professor Albert Nasibulin and PhD students from the Photonics Center took part in the sixth International Conference on Graphene and Related Structures, where they presented their research on carbon nanomaterials and nanotubes.
— In Moscow, at the second International Congress “Humanities vs Sciences & the Knowledge Accelerating in Modern World: Parallels and Interaction”, Artem Oganov, who heads the Skoltech Materials Discovery Laboratory, co-moderated a session on art restoration and materials science, opening it with his presentation on the nature of color in substances. Junior Research Scientist Dmitry Bezmarternykh from the Neuro Center spoke about using brain connectivity models for neurofeedback in emotion regulation.
📍Czech Republic
In Prague, Skoltech PhD students Danil Gusak, Nikita Sukhorukov, Anna Volodkevich, and Veronika Ivanova participated in the 19th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (CORE rating A), presenting their research results in the field of recommender systems and user data analysis.
📍Austria
In Vienna, at the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Research Scientist Miguel Altamirano Cabrera from the Engineering Center's Intelligent Space Robotics Laboratory presented three papers — spanning topics from robot control to neural activity analysis and multimodal feedback systems.
📍South Korea
In Daejeon, Skoltech PhD students Ekaterina Antipushina and Ruslan Kalimullin delivered presentations at MICCAI 2025, a leading international conference in medical artificial intelligence. Ekaterina presented the pyOpenNFT framework for real-time ML neurofeedback, while Ruslan introduced the CSTNet generative model for transforming EEG data into ECoG data, opening new possibilities for precise diagnosis of brain activity.
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