As I sit here at the Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof seeing all the incredulous expression on people’s faces over the Hitzewelle of 2026, I forget that I haven’t slept for the past 48 hours.

HackXplore 2026 was an event hosted by NXTGEN that brought young engineers/scientists together to work on cool projects. These past two days felt like living on a playground. I made so many friends, we had cool sophisticated toys, we ate a lot of snacks. There’s always time to be a kid.

My team was handed an 8 channel 24 bit, 250 HZ- EEG Cap manufactured by Unicorn labs. It was one of the most sophisticated pieces of brain computer interfaces I have worked with. Our final product was an algorithm that could replace the polygraph and reduce the cost 5 fold while increasing accessibility to smaller law enforcement agencies. You can find the GitHub repo for the project here:- https://github.com/SidKris1234/Amplitude-P300---An-8-channel-EEG-algorithm-to-detect-subconscious-associations-

I didn’t win this time, but there’s always a next time. I felt so happy introducing people to Cognitive Systems and see that glint of curiosity in their eyes.

During the Hackathon, I infact finally realized what my Thesis was also truly about. My algorithm could help in the accurate sound source localization of gunfire in drones.