After putting their innovative minds together, five local young men crafted MoovDisk and won a $25,000 prize. MoovDisk is an interactive game that is designed to get children active.
Anthony Bakshi of Marlboro, Moyukh Chatterjee of Manalapan, Jeff Hart of Freehold, Lahiru Mudalige of Ocean Township and Matthew Warshauer of West Long Branch were the designer group from High Technology High School, Lincroft, who won the prize.
The students entered the Ruckus Nation contest after administrators at their high school made the student body aware of the competition.
Ruckus Nation was a competition open to people around the world in which participants were challenged to create a new product that would influence children to get up and move. HopeLab, a nonprofit organization, sponsored Ruckus Nation and will be supporting the development, testing and distribution of products based on the winning designs.
There were four categories the competition: middle school, high school, college and “other,” which was open to adults.
The $25,000 prize that was won by the group of local students was for winning in the high school category. Ten winners from the age-based categories were named.
Teacher Linda Grunthaner said she posted a sign-up sheet for students who were interested in entering the competition. As the groups were limited to five members, Grunthaner said High Technology High School had two groups enter the contest.
At the high school the two groups of students worked hard crafting their ideas. Grunthaner said the students would meet with her to make sure the process was moving along and so that she might also review the 50-page application which contained legal information since the winners would be giving up the intellectual property rights of their concept.
“This is all information (the students) already know,” Grunthaner said of the process of creating a product.
The instructor said classes that are taught at the specialized high school include as part of the curriculum the process from conception to production of a product. She praised the students for the care they exhibited in searching through patents to make certain their idea was completely original.
Anthony, 16, Moyukh, 15, Lahiru, 15, and Matthew, 16, spoke with Greater Media Newspapers about their creation and winning the prize money, which they split five ways ($5,000 each). Jeff, 17, was unavailable during the interview.
The students said they created the idea of MoovDisk through brainstorming. Knowing that they wanted a Web component, they bounced around some ideas and eventually came up with their high-tech version of tag.
In MoovDisk a roving console drops with LED-lit disks in a playing field in two colors, designating the two teams. The objective is to race to tag each disk of the other team so that your color is the dominant one. An individual’s score can be uploaded and kept track of online, allowing that person to compete with other players. The game would have multiple speeds and playing modes. The benefit is the physical activity in which each participating player engages.
“Our generation thrives on technology. We know how to use it almost instinctively. By bringing it into the game, we can hopefully get kids active. I’m not exactly sure how many more hours we spent brainstorming, just sitting in our conference room writing on whiteboards, coming up with brand new ideas and putting together the best ones,” Moyukh said.
Upon hearing that they had been named semifinalists in the competition, the students flew to San Francisco where on March 17 at the de Young Museum the prizes were announced.
Now prototypes based on the winning entries will be created. The prototypes will be rigorously tested to determine their effectiveness and the most effective will be developed into final products and made available to children, according to the Ruckus Nation Internet Web site.
The young men said that for the most part they would put their prize money aside for college, although some have bought a few items to treat themselves.
“Ruckus Nation showed us how well we work together. It’s shown us that even a small group of high school kids have the potential to make a difference,” Lahiru said.
The MoovDisk team was asked to name a person for the Inspiration Prize of $2,500. The group members chose their teacher, Grunthaner, who won one of the eight awards.
Grunthaner said she was surprised when she learned that the contest included an Inspiration Award and was touched that the students chose her.
The other group from High Technology High School, comprised of Kevin Lin, Joan Liu, Joshua Ma and Oliver Song, received a $250 prize for being named a semifinalist. Their creation was The Blue Box, a form of tag with a device that records a person’s statistics.
With two successful teams from the high school, Grunthaner said she now has students knocking at her door in hopes of information for a new contest to enter.
Speaking about the students at High Technology High School, the teacher said, “They are always anxious to solve a new problem.”

