James Dyson Award deadline nears
Ingenious inventions roll-in as the James Dyson
Award deadline nears
If you haven’t entered
your project yet, there’s still time.
A device tackling ocean plastic waste, a heavy-lifting exoskeleton and an automated pollination system are just some of the thought-provoking entries that have entered the 2018 James Dyson Award so far.
Sustainability
Our oceans are swamped
with eight millions tonnes of waste every year. To abate a
potential crisis in our ecosystem, technology must react
quickly and students in Spain think they may have the
answer. L.I.F.E. (Living Incorporated Filter Ecosystem) is
engineered to dissolve plastic waste, filter toxic water and
foster life underwater. Click here for more information.
The
future of work
Reports suggest that 800million
jobs could be lost by 2030 due to automation, and already
robots are competent in conducting physical activity.
Compiled with the prevalence of injury in the sector, manual
labour jobs appear most at risk. EXOSUIT aims to empower
human labour by correcting overexertion and incorrect
lifting and maximising strength. Click here for more
information.
Sustainable
agriculture
As bee numbers decline across the
globe, the United Nations claim that the world's food supply
could be jeopardised. If this trend isn’t curbed, industry
must develop alternative mechanisms for pollination. Stem is
an automated system which artificially pollinates plants and
optimises their growth. Click here for more
information.
Space exploration
From
space colonisation, to space tourism, Space and Exploration
Technologies are increasingly de rigueur, yet space
exploration currently incurs a high-level of risk.
Extravehicular activity (EVA) is a primary example of this,
as it involves missions outside of a spacecraft, leaving
astronauts vulnerable to unanticipated difficulties.
Despite this, audio is the currently the principle
method for communication. Astronaut
Augmented Reality Display, aims to make astronauts more
autonomous during mission by providing them with new
communications tools including a visual display, voice
control and audio. Click here to find out more.
Air
pollution
According to the World Health
Organisation, every year over 7 million die prematurely from
chronic illnesses after being exposed to air pollution; of
these deaths, 1.7 million are children. Robi, is a wearable
device designed to educate children about air quality using
colour, sound and vibration, whilst also cleaning the air
using a carbon filter. Click here to find out more.
The
James Dyson Award
The competition is open to
student inventors with the ability and ambition to solve the
problems of tomorrow. Winning solutions are selected by Sir
James Dyson and show ingenuity, iterative development and
commercial viability. This year Mexico, the UAE, Sweden and
the Philippines, have joined the global contest. With
students from 27 nations now competing, the award is set to
welcome new approaches to a broader range of global issues
than ever before.
Since the competition first opened fourteen years ago, the iconic inventor has already contributed over £1m to championing boundary-breaking concepts. To help finalists to develop their novel idea, each year the overall winner is awarded £30,000, and winners in each participating region receive £2,000. Unlike other competitions, participants are given full autonomy over their intellectual property.
The James Dyson Award forms part of a wider commitment by Sir James Dyson, to demonstrate the power of engineers to change the world. The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology, the James Dyson Foundation and James Dyson Award embody a vision to empower aspiring engineers, encouraging them to apply their theoretical knowledge and discover new ways to improve lives through technology.
Last year’s International Winner, ‘The sKan’ was a bold and ambitious project to provide a low-cost solution to melanoma, a form of skin cancer which is increasing in incidences. ‘The sKan’ is designed to detect the disease, by creating a thermal map of the skin. In the long-term the team hope the product could save thousands of lives every year.
A year on since winning the award, the team of biomedical scientists are already developing their company ‘PRSM Medical’, building their next prototype and plan to file their first patent later this year. Following this success, they are encouraging others to enter their projects into the Awards: “Winning the James Dyson Award was an exciting and humbling opportunity. The exposure we received around the world opened many doors for us. We’ve made connections with top experts and are continuing to learn from them so we can continue to develop ‘The sKan’ to solve the problems in today’s melanoma diagnosis process.”
The James Dyson Award closes for entries on 20th July 2018. With just a few days to go, the countdown clock is ticking, but already the competition has attracted a number of ground-breaking ideas. Below are further details about some of the projects that having sparked our interest.