The

HardTech

Awards

Formerly known as The Misties Awards

Recognizing the people who have launched intelligent and connected devices at scale.

Recognizing the people who have launched intelligent and connected devices at scale.

The HardTech Awards are searching for the engineers, designers and visionaries who are quietly shaping our future through commercialized hardware innovation.

Check out the 2026 Semi-Finalists

Nominate someone who...

Nominate someone who…

Has deployed commercial hardware products at scale over their career.

Is working to make the world a better place, as measured by the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Is inspiring others with really cool and groundbreaking tech.

Nominations close March 15.

Shortlist will be announced the first week of April.

Section 0: Nominator’s Details

Self nominations are allowed

Section 1: Nominee’s Details

Full Name of Nominee*
Nominee’s Email
Nominee’s Linkedin Profile*
Nominee’s Twitter Handle
Supporting URLs
If shortlisted for a HardTech Award, the nominee will be asked to provide the following assets for use in promo materials: headshot, brief bio, social media handles, and additional websites or media links.*
Why does this nominee deserve to be recognized? 400 character limit
What impact has their work had? 400 character limit
What is the potential future impact of their work? 400 character limit
 
 

Thanks for your HardTech Award nomination.

If selected as a finalist, we will be following up through the email address provided by March 18th, 2026 to provide more details.

2026 HardTech Awards Semi-Finalists

Iman Jeddi

Senior Vice President of Intuitive

Nikhil Balram

CEO at Mojo Vision

Rajeev Badyal

VP of Technology at Amazon

Ryan Gariepy

VP Robotics at Rockwell Automation

Zachary Omohundro

Co-Founder of Monarch Tractor

Euan Abraham

Chief Hardware & Manufacturing Officer at Serve Robotics

Xavier Hébert-Couturier

Co-Founder of Picketa Systems

Dr. Gleb Akselrod

Founder of Lumotive

Tye Brady

Chief Technologist at Amazon Robotics

Hardik Sharma

Co-Founder of Ottonomy 

Dr. Laureen Meroueh

Founder of Hertha Metals

Scott Johnston

Co-Founder of Lumafield

Guadalupe Murga

Co-Founder of SYLVARUM

Timothy Menard

Founder of LYT

Syed Rafi Sifath Palal

Co-Founder of E Lab Bangladesh

Wyatt Watson

Vice President, Ops and Sales at GlobalWafers America

Ed Bryner

CTO of Gecko Robotics

Rohan Pandya

Co-Founder of Focal

Brendon Bielat

Chief Product Officer at Onward Robotics

Josh Kornfeld

Founder of Tactile

Xiaoran Wang

Co-Founder of AGIGA AI

Praveen Kumar Tippani

Senior Director of EnergyX

Behzad Peykari

Chief Innovation Officer at Human In Motion Robotics

Sampriti Bhattacharyya

Founder of Navier
Alejandro Covalin

CTO at Spark Biomedical Inc

Alex Qi

CEO at Pontosense

Anurag Kamal

Co-Founder of ElectricFish

Anna Gudmundson

CEO of Sensate

Ben Hoomes

Co-Founder of Sonical

Aadeel Akhtar

Founder of PSYONIC

Tony Zhao

Co-Founder of Sunday Robotics

Gary Bradski

Chief Science Officer at Bonsai Robotics

Sam Fok

Co-Founder of femtoAI

Alex Russomanno

Co-Founder of NewHaptics

Andrea Colaco

Director of Engineering at Google

Scott Hickle

Co-founder of Throne

Colin O’Neil

Co-Founder of Voxelis AI

Toby Ricco

Founder of Bimotal

Avinash Verma

Vice President of NPI at Dexterity

Emmanuel Glen

Co-Founder of AWL-Electricity

Greg Browne

Director of R&D at Stryker

Sonny Kong

Co-Founder of Ventrix Labs

Alexander Petersen

Co-Founder of MOBY Robotics

Barmak Heshmat

Co-Founder of Brelyon

The Top 20 Winners will be announced May 13

Join MistyWest and SolidWorks for the HardTech Awards Ceremony—your ‘home for hardware’ during during Web Summit Vancouver.

REQUEST TO ATTEND
REQUEST TO ATTEND

Who are the judges?

2025 HardTech Award Winners

Jeff Thornburg

Co-Founder of Portal Space Systems

Driving innovations in space exploration, internet access, robotics, and energy that are reshaping life on Earth.

Quinn Daigle

Engineering Technical Lead at Flash Forest

Building drone-based reforestation tech that delivers fast, intelligent, and regenerative tree planting.

Max Gerbut

Founder of haus.me.homes

Engineering a new era of energy-efficient housing with fully self-sustaining, climate-adaptive homes.

Dr. Macarena Cataldo

Co-Founder of Viridis Research

Advancing clean water access with a chemical-free electrooxidation technology.

Robbie Edwards

VP Product Engineering at 4AG Robotics

Leading development of autonomous robots that tackle labor-strained food production.

Richard Wurden

Co-Founder of Aigen

Driving the future of sustainable agriculture with a fleet of 100% solar-powered, autonomous rovers.

Todd Holmdahl

VP of Microsoft Quantum

Pioneering some of Microsoft’s most iconic innovations and leading the charge in quantum computing.

Matthias Hofmann

Co-Founder of Eyebot

Revolutionizing access to vision care with an autonomous eye exam platform.

Anthony Kaul

Co-Founder of Cloud DX

Forging new paths in healthcare with remote patient monitoring technology.

Brendan Hermalyn

Founder of Thalo Labs

Tackling urban emissions head-on with point-source carbon removal and HVAC optimization technology.

Cole Ashman

Founder of Pila Energy

Making energy security accessible by bringing smart backup power to everyday appliances.

Tim Balz

Founder of Kalogon

Setting a new standard in mobility and assistive tech with smart seating systems.

Cat Adalay

Founder of Aurea

Empowering off-grid energy independence with an innovative micro-wind solution.

Edward Mehr

Co-Founder of Machina Labs

Redefining advanced manufacturing by combining AI and robotics to form complex metal parts without tooling.

Allan Stephan

Co-Founder of Soovu

Pioneering the Pacific Northwest’s hardware ecosystem by commercializing medical technology platforms.

Rema Matevosyan

Co-Founder of Near Space Labs

Transforming climate disaster response and risk management with autonomous stratospheric robots.

Assaf Gad

VP Strategy at Intuition Robotics

Redefining human-robot interaction with the first AI care companion purpose-built for older adults.

Evan Brink

Senior Mechatronics Engineer at Exyn Technologies

Advancing industrial automation by developing GPS-free sensor systems for LiDAR mapping drones.

Dr. Surinder Singh

Co-Founder of Relyion Energy

Commercializing second-life batteries for renewable energy and grid decarbonization.

Firas Khalifeh

Co-Founder of Carbon Mobile

Charting new territory in sustainable hardware with patented carbon fiber technology.

Changing the world takes more than just software.

Changing the world takes more than just software.

Changing the world takes more than just software.

Since 2022

The HardTech Awards have successfully recognized over 80 hardware leaders, rapidly becoming the largest recognition platform in intelligent and connected hardware development.

Built on a strong foundation

Our network of judges, sponsors, and nominators come from backgrounds as product owners, founders, engineering leads, venture capitalists, and technologists.

This isn’t just an award

We’re an ecosystem of recognition, collaboration, and long-term industry impact—here to inspire the next wave of world-changers in commercialized hardware innovation.

Request to attend the HardTech Awards Ceremony on May 13

NOMINATE A JUDGE

JUDGE CRITERIA

  • Fortune 1000 executive experience or post-Series A startup experience
  • 2+ years of experience working on or with intelligent and connected devices
  • Cannot be currently nominated for a Misties award
  • 6 to 12 hours time commitment to holding adjudicate

If selected to be a judge for the Misties awards, I acknowledge that I will be asked to provide the following assets for use in promotional materials: headshot, brief biography, social media handles, and additional websites or media links.

 

Thanks for your submission!

If selected to be a judge, we will be following up through the email address provided.

2026 Judges

2026 Judges

Jeff Thornburg
CEO of Portal Space Systems

Cole Ashman

Founder of Pila

Vitaly Golomb

Managing Partner at Mavka Capital

Amish Patel

Founder & Managing Director at Conduit Venture Labs

Angela Liao

Manufacturing Partnership Manager @ Google

Sabrina Sasaki

Managing Partner at Monozukuri Ventures
Shaun Abrahamson
Managing Partner at Third Sphere
Paulina Szyzdek
Investment Principal at E12 Ventures
Thyaga Nandagopal
Head of Emerging Technologies at Samsung Research America
Richard Wurden
Co-founder of Aigen
Jeremy Patt
CTO of Summit Nanotech
Director of Co-Innovation at Microsoft
Linda Megerdichian
​​​​Digital Hardware Design Engineer at Extron Electronics
Head of DevRel at Arduino

Avi Rosenthal

Partner at bluesalve partners

Thibault Lerailler

Founder & CEO of Punctuate Design

Les Karpas

Global Head of Physical AI at NVIDIA

Stephanie Willerth

CEO of Axolotl Biosciences

Karthik Shivaram

Lead Engineer at Apple Inc.

Jordan Ruderman

Principal Test Engineer at GM

Pierre-Louis Soulié

Founder of Fable Engineering

Sarah Applebaum

Partner at Pangaea Ventures

Nick Lynch

Dept. Manager of Warehouse Automation at Opex Corporation

Todd Holmdahl

VP of Microsoft Quantum

Kevin Damoa

Co-Founder & CEO of Glīd Technologies

Matt Mickelson

Principal Systems Engineer at Amazon

Daniel Oberhaus

Founder of Haus

Jay Miseli

Co-Founder and CEO of Red Thread X

Paige Raynes

Sr Director of Product & Solutions at Peratech

Billy Daniels

Director of Product @ Wearlinq

HardTech Award winners are…

Commercializing advanced air quality monitoring products.

Transforming climate disaster response and risk management with autonomous stratospheric robots.

Making brain-computer interface technologies.

Driving innovations in space exploration, internet access, robotics, and energy that are reshaping life on Earth.

Building drone-based reforestation tech that delivers fast, intelligent, and regenerative tree planting.

Commercializing the application of muon tomography.

Enabling anyone to collect environmental data anywhere on the planet.

Developing technology for heart-implantable circulatory ventricular assist devices.

Explore past years to see the full list of winners and their achievements.

2025

2024

2023

2022

“Some of the best ideas come from solving your own problems first.”

— Eric Migicovsky, Founder of Pebble and HardTech Awards Judge

HardTech Award winners are...

Transforming climate disaster response and risk management with autonomous stratospheric robots.

Commercializing advanced air quality monitoring products.

Making brain-computer interface technologies.

Commercializing the application of muon tomography.

Driving innovations in space exploration, internet access, robotics, and energy that are reshaping life on Earth.

Building drone-based reforestation tech that delivers fast, intelligent, and regenerative tree planting.

Leading development of autonomous robots that tackle labor-strained food production.

Enabling anyone to collect environmental data anywhere on the planet.

Developing technology for heart-implantable circulatory ventricular assist devices.

Explore past years to see the full list of winners and their achievements.

2025

2024

2023

2022

“Some of the best ideas come from solving your own problems first.”

— Eric Migicovsky, Founder of Pebble and HardTech Awards Judge

Learn More

Learn More

Powering a Sustainable Future with Hardware

Hardware That’s Solving Human Problems

HardTech for Health, Dignity and Care

Hardware that’s Building the Future—Right Now

2026 Sponsors

2025 Sponsors

PLATINUM
Developed by Dassault Systèmes, SolidWorks is a leading 3D CAD and CAE software application used by millions of engineers, designers, and manufacturers to create, simulate, and manage product data.
GOLD

From initial R&D and prototyping to proof of concept and MVP, Intent act as partners to their clients, helping them create innovative product concepts and make their vision a reality.

Founded more than 85 years ago in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Doane Grant Thornton LLP is a proudly Canadian accounting and business advisory firm with deep local roots and an international network.

Fictiv is a global manufacturing and supply chain company that enables organizations to scale globally without the typical barriers of cost, complexity, and risk. 

SILVER

Nordic Semiconductor plays a key role in the realization of the wireless future. Their award-winning Bluetooth Low Energy solutions pioneered ultra-low power wireless, making them the global market leader.

Boast combines in-house human expertise with the latest AI capabilities to deliver a complete, maximized and defensible R&D tax credit claim.

The

HardTech

Awards

Formerly known as The Misties Awards

Check out the 2026 Semi-Finalists

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