In recent years, smartwatches and other wearable technology have soared in popularity. These devices offer continuous health monitoring, tracking metrics ranging from daily step counts and physical exertion to heart rate, respiratory rate, and sleep duration. They can be invaluable tools for promoting personal health, whether keeping athletes (and those looking to get in shape) accountable or monitoring key vital signs in people with serious health conditions.

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Yet all wearable devices on the market today have one critical shortcoming: They must be removed from the body periodically to charge. Device manufacturers are always working to improve battery life, but the longest-lasting options still need to be charged every week or two. A group of UMass Amherst innovators believe they have found a solution. Recent graduates Ben Hyjek ’25 and Flo Sabatini ’25 of the College of Engineering, and Rishi Nandurbarkar ’25 and Max Loper ’25 of the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS), are developing groundbreaking kinetic energy-harvesting technology to revolutionize the wearable tech industry. They are the cofounders of sustainable start-up Diel Technologies, one of the winners of the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship’s 2025 Innovation Challenge: The Final.

In the Innovation Challenge’s culminating pitch competition of the year, held on April 24, 2025, teams of students delivered compelling pitches and responded to questions from a panel of judges in front of a live audience. The five competing ventures each took home a share of the $65,000 prize pool, with the largest prize, $36,000, going to Diel Technologies. “As tech companies beef up operating systems and introduce AI into smart wearable devices, the batteries simply cannot hold,” says Loper. “Our solution is a kinetic energy-harvesting system, which uses the movement of a user’s arm—whether they’re picking up a latte or swinging their arm while running—to generate a current that charges the smartwatch they’re wearing.” The kinetic energy-harvesting system is believed to generate a hundred times more energy than other types of sustainable systems in development, such as those that use solar or thermoelectric power.

For one member of the team, the inspiration to develop this technology was very personal. “My grandma has been in and out of the hospital since she had a seizure a couple of years ago. She also has a history of high blood pressure and diabetes,” says Nandurbarkar. “She was given a wearable activity monitor to track her health, and obviously that’s something that needs to be working 24-7.”
 

The Path to Diel Technologies

As its founders report, the story of Diel Technologies illustrates the importance of resilience, flexibility, and building a network when pursuing an entrepreneurial venture. The team came together gradually during the students’ junior year at UMass Amherst, with different members contributing unique skills and knowledge.  

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“This is a hardware/software type of project, so we came together to help each other out,” explains Hyjek. The team has created a software program that takes in design constraints (such as the precise amount of space available for the component in a particular smartwatch) and outputs an optimal kinetic energy-harvester design that can be sent to a manufacturer to produce the component. 

The business model also took time to develop. Hyjek was originally interested in creating a mechanical watch with a kinetic energy-harvesting system (the venture’s name, Diel Technologies, is a nod to the 24-hour period marked by a watch) until Loper—inspired by a course he was taking on operating systems—suggested making it a smartwatch. For a period, the team was undecided between developing their own smartwatch with a kinetic energy-harvesting system or creating a component to integrate into existing smartwatches. After competing in the 2024 Innovation Challenge, the judges’ feedback in a preliminary round helped them settle on creating a component. 

“The judges posed the question, ‘Would you rather compete with Apple or help them improve their product?’” recalls Nandurbarkar. “This convinced us to focus on the B2B route, which allowed us to progress very efficiently this year.”

The team went on to win the Berthiaume Center’s Tech Challenge. They began working with Matthew Rattigan, senior teaching faculty in CICS, who helped them connect with professionals who could offer advice on marketing a technology product like theirs. Through the Berthiaume Center, they participated in boot camps, where they learned how to present to potential investors, and heard talks by venture capitalists. They also received valuable feedback on their concept from the judges in the Innovation Challenge.

“They strongly encouraged us to patent our technology. This requires time and money,” says Loper. “They also advised us to do more customer discovery to learn what companies want and to consider programs like I-Corps that offer training in tech transfer.”

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Diel’s cofounders plan to use the Innovation Challenge prize money to patent their invention and rent space in a start-up incubator over the summer to continue developing their business. They also hope to travel to a conference in California to network with others in the wearable tech space. In the fall, Hyjek and Nandurbarkar will return to campus to complete their master’s degrees—in mechanical engineering and computer science, respectively—through UMass’s 4+1 accelerated master’s programs. 

Reflecting on their journey to date launching Diel Technologies, Hyjek offers the following advice to other aspiring entrepreneurs: "Don’t give up too quickly on an idea. A lot of people have a great first idea but don’t take the time to see it through. If you don’t try, you’ll never know."
 

This story was originally published in June 2025.