The James Dyson Award – upgrading the world one clever project at a time

In September 2017, shortlisted entries for this year’s Dyson Award were announced. For those of you who don’t know, the Dyson Award is an international award for current and recently graduated design engineering students, coordinated by the James Dyson Foundation. The main purpose of the award is to inspire people and get them interested in design engineering.

Here is a run through my favourite entries in their respective categories:

Sustainability

Name: Petit Pli Designer: Ryan Mario Yasin, Imperial College and Royal College of Art

The fashion clothing industry is hugely wasteful and unsustainable, particularly in terms of children’s clothing as they often grow very quickly - children grow through 7 sizes in their first 2 years!

Petit Pli is a children’s line of clothing, specifically designed with the aim of making the children’s clothing industry more sustainable. It grows bidirectionally thanks to its permanently pleated design, expanding up to 7 sizes as children grow. Petit Pli is made of machine washable fabric, has a packable one size fits all design, and is rain and wind proof. In my opinion, a simple yet effective solution to a problem that desperately needs fixing.

Health

Name: Cup for Arthritis, Parkinson’s and the Visually Impaired Designer: Tao An Yu, Rhode Island School of Design

Elderly people, specifically those with arthritis, Parkinson’s and visual impairment face many unique challenges in their daily lives: joint pain, hand tremors, pouring and difficulty in judging liquid levels to name but a few. This cup is designed to alleviate some of these problems, making daily tasks like drinking tea - a British tradition - easier.

The cup is made of two parts; the lid and the cup body. The lid has an opening that allows for flow controlled drinking, minimising the risk of spillage. It also includes a wooden dowel that acts as a liquid level marker - floating when the cup is full. The dented middle reduces the need for tilting when drinking, perfect for those with chronic neck pain. The cup includes a weighted base, allowing for greater stability when lifted, minimising the effect of tremors that are often experienced by Parkinson’s patients.

It also includes a rubber base, to prevent sliding when on a surface and cushioning if dropped. The cup itself is designed to be easy to hold in the hand with a rounded lip to facilitate comfortable drinking. It is a design that effectively addresses a simple but common problem for the elderly and something the rest of us take for granted!

Lifestyle

Name: Bump Mark - bio food expiry label Designer: Solveiga Pakstaite, Brunel University

This is one for the freshers out there. Are you tired of buying fresh meat, then forgetting to cook it and wondering if it’s still safe? We all forget things at the back of the fridge and this leads to a lot of wasted food. Spare a thought for those with visual impairments, too. Have you noticed that almost all food labels are printed, in tiny ink nonetheless? Not great if you have a visual impairment!

The Bump Mark design hopes to make a tactile food expiry label for meat protein foods. The label has 3 layers: a bumpy plastic layer covered by smooth set gelatin jelly which itself is covered by a plastic layer. The principle is, because gelatin is a protein, it decays at the same rate as the meat product within the packaging. So, when the gelatin starts to decay, it becomes a liquid, exposing the bumps in the plastic below. Running your finger over the label, which was previously smooth, gives the feeling of bumps which means your food is spoilt! This design is ingenious because, not only is it ideal for people with visual impairments, it also provides far more accurate expiry information compared to a printed date!

That’s a selection of a few of my favourites from this year’s shortlist for the Dyson Award. These designs showed a common theme for me: a simple but intuitive design that effectively addresses an aspect of our lives we often take for granted! So from this humble writer, hats off to the brilliant minds behind these and many other ideas, your inventions and ideas may just change the world one day!