The 2011 international James Dyson Award has issued a call for entries, starting on April 5, 2011. The award program challenges young engineers and designers to develop problem solving inventions and runs in eighteen countries. Celebrating ingenuity and creativity, the winner receives £10,000 (around $16,000) to develop their invention and £10,000 for their university. Entries are accepted until August 2, 2011.
Last year's award was won by Samuel Adeloju, an industrial design graduate from University of New South Wales Sydney. His invention, Longreach, is a lifesaving projectile buoyancy aid that uses grenade propulsion technology to fire an emergency buoyancy aid up to 150 meters out to sea. I spoke with Adeloju, who is now refining the technology with a view to putting it into commercial production.
What was your inspiration for Longreach?
Military training is about the use of lethal force. But my training with the Army Reserves exposed me to hi-tech grenade propulsion technology which prompted me to explore the idea of making a life-saving flotation device that could be safely fired over a long distance.
Has your invention evolved since winning the James Dyson Award - will it be available commercially?
Longreach has undergone several design changes since winning the James Dyson Award and there's been lots of interest internationally. The potential for Longreach to change the way people are rescued at sea is definitely being realized.
What advice would you give to a student thinking of entering the award?
The reason, I feel that Longreach has been so successful has been the fact that it was novel approach to water rescue, but the research and design considerations that backed it up, made it a very tangible and implementable design.
Make sure you protect your idea. I had a lot of trouble initially protecting my designs because I did not submit provisional patents. It takes a very small amount of time and money to file a provisional patent, but it gives you the opportunity to protect your design if there is interest in it. It is very difficult to do after the event.
Follow Jean Lin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ottodesign
|
Post a Comment
meantime, maybe someone else can plug the leak on the sinking economic ship called the u.s.a and help create real jobs (not psuedo jobs that dont' pay, have no benefits and last a day or a week so as to play with the under-reported unemployment figures) xx fingers crossed xx
Sure the IRobot's offerings don't look as good, but after I got my Roomba a few months ago I have yet to use the Dyson vacuum cleaner. Fortunately there is a craiglist app to address that.
the roomba barely works.. lets be honest here.
Defiantly realized.?
LMOA
And that Reax device ----- assuming that the person is in a state of high physical distress and is likely unconscious, it appears the paramedic has to somehow strap and fit it onto the inert victim.
Both appear as "solutions" of dubious benefit.
Better to focus that technological acumen on creating a remote robotic device that can enter compromised nuclear facilities to give accurate assessments of a catastrophic situation and perhaps be manipulated into some sort of remediation.
The idea that everyone should concentrate on one invention or another and that will somehow get the thing faster is foolish. Creativity and invention is not a zero-sum game. Creative invention combined with the market economy has made life much better than before "invention" was encouraged.
Working as a tradesman in peoples houses for decades, as a conscientious worker I clean up as I go along, using the householders vacuum if they dont mind, mine if they do or theirs is crap. Dysons are always the biggest pain in the ass. No matter what colour it is.
But that posh boy sure knows how to feed a bone-idle lifestyle media their ready-made stories. Imagine: HE'S the victim.
And now these awards. The media doesn't need to do a stroke of work.