James Dyson Award 2016 opens for entries

Friday, 15 April March 2016

James Dyson challenges young inventors to develop tomorrow’s technology today

James Dyson Award 2016 opens for entries

The prestigious James Dyson Award is now calling for ideas in product design and engineering for the 2016 competition.

First run in New Zealand in 2001, the competition is now global in its search for new and better ways to solve problems. In recent years thecompetition has discovered and supported inventors with ideas such as an inflatable baby incubator for developing countries, and a gelatin food label which indicates food freshness.

With a prize fund of almost NZD $200,000[i], the world’s brightest young engineers are challenged to design something that solves a problem. Students and recent graduates have until 19 July, 2016 to enter.

Entrants from 22 countries around the world will compete for a prize of NZD$60,000[ii] and a further NZD$10,000[iii] for their university.

Last year’s international winner was Voltera V-One, a rapid prototyping system developed by a team of four engineering students from the University of Waterloo, Canada. Printed circuit boards are in almost all electronics, but developing prototypes of them can be prohibitively time-consuming and expensive for young inventors and hobbyists. Voltera V-One is a desktop device, which prints circuit boards within minutes – enabling a wider audience to create electronic devices. The team shipped its first batch of printers in November 2015, and is hoping to ship out its second batch soon.

“Young people have the power to change the world through engineering. Each year the James Dyson Award sees truly remarkable solutions to real-life problems all approached from different angles. No problem is too big and the simplest solutions are the best - use the award as a stepping stone to take your invention towards commercialisation,’ says James Dyson, the inventor of the world’s first bagless vacuum.

Auckland designer Jason Khoo, was last year named the New Zealand winner for his design of a treehouse platform for kids to build architectural wonders in their backyard. The pre-built foundation for a tree house could be easily mounted and eliminates the need for a bespoke permanent attachment when building tree houses, allowing the Tree Mount to be relocated.

Jason received over NZD$4,000 from the James Dyson Foundation to invest in the development of the concept, and his design was put forward for international judging against entries from participating countries.

The New Zealand leg of the competition is supported by Dyson, The Designers Institute and the Intellectual Property Office of NZ who will provide the 2016 national winner with an official fee prize package tailored to his/her immediate intellectual property needs. The national winner will be announced in September.

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