From a well-timed recyclable PPE glove to a wheel-based device to cut “invisible” pollution from tyres, 20 groundbreaking designs by students across the world are in the running to be named on Thursday as the international winner of the annual James Dyson award.
The prestigious accolade brings with it a £30,000 cash prize – and gives winners a chance to turn their innovation into a commercial product with real-world impact. One in five previous winners have gone on to commercialise a wide range of exotic inventions, including bionic arms, origami-style clothing and bio-reactive food labels.
For this year’s award, a record 1,798 entries have been submitted – two-thirds more than last year – with a majority addressing urgent global issues such as climate change, sustainability, medicine and healthcare.
This year’s entries opened in March amid the deepening coronavirus pandemic. All 27 countries and regions taking part were going into or already in lockdown because of Covid-19. Schools and universities were closing, forcing students to return home to complete their classes online.
“This year has brought massive challenges and if one thing is certain, our top 20 inventors have shown that young minds and unfiltered curiosity need a seat at the table,” said Tom Crawford, Dyson’s global director of sustainability. “There is always a need to solve problems and the number and breadth of this year’s entries show that the future of invention is bright.”
Many ideas were developed by students while grappling with new ways of working, Crawford explained, such as collaborating with team-mates virtually (sometimes in different countries) and using basic home resources while laboratories and workshops were closed.
A national winner is selected for every country entering the award, before the final phase where the international winner is chosen by Sir James Dyson.
The fortunes of previous winners
As well as proving a project’s technical viability, entrants are encouraged to show that it is also commercially viable. Inevitably winners are propelled into an unfamiliar world of patent applications, setting up companies from scratch and fundraising.
Joel Gibbard was the UK national winner in 2015 for his 3D-printed robotic hand. His win resulted in the commercial launch of what is claimed to be the world’s most affordable multi-grip arm. Gibbard founded the Bristol-based company OpenBionics, and his work led to him being awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours in October.
Ryan Yasin, a London-based designer whose origami-inspired children’s clothing made from a durable pleated fabric that expands to fit growing babies and toddlers won him the UK national award in 2017, said: “Winners are fortunate to enter and build a community within the Dyson world. It feels like the team are always on hand when you need them, and anticipate and consider when you need to focus on your business outcomes – it’s a perfect blend of support.”
Yasin, who has an aeronautical engineering degree from Imperial College London and completed his masters in global innovation design at the Royal College of Art in 2017, hails the scheme as the only one to cut across so many academic disciplines.
His solution to throwaway or fast fashion, through his Petit Pli garments, now sold online to 47 countries, was devised long before it became an environmental scourge. A slew of other plaudits include the Red Dot design award, H&M Global Change award and the Dezeen award for best wearable design.
The company’s Portugal factory has more recently switched to making stylish one-piece adult masks from similar pleated material, while a range of adult wear (including maternity clothing) is being tested.
The industrial designer Solveiga Pakštaitė, meanwhile, has continued to develop her design Bump Mark, a bio-reactive food label that indicates when it has gone off, since being named the UK national winner in 2014. Renamed Mimica Touch, the company is preparing to launch its first product in the UK early next year with major brand and supermarket partners. Recycled plastic caps on juice bottles will incorporate a unique plant-based gel chemistry to indicate when the drink is past its use-by date.
“Without the James Dyson award, Mimica would not exist,” said Pakštaitė. “My idea would be gathering dust in a drawer. The PR exposure was extraordinary – I was featured on the BBC, in Wired and the Guardian and my (Lithuanian) surname was the answer to a clue in the Times crossword puzzle. Interested companies started approaching me. Six years later we are a 10-strong team and – despite delays to manufacturing caused by Covid – close to launching our first commercial product.”
Also attracting attention for its simplicity and speedy entry to the market is Gecko Traxx, a portable manual wheelchair accessory that gives users access to beaches by stopping wheels from sinking into the sand, designed by 2019 international runner-up Ryan Tilley of RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. The simple clip can be used by those with limited dexterity to help fit special tyres to their wheelchair without having to get out and is now in commercial production.
