It may have built a reputation around vacuum cleaners and hair curling devices, but today’s announcement of the James Dyson Award 2024 winners celebrated so much more than Airwraps. Instead, the annual international design competition that encourages and inspires the designers of new problem-solving ideas spotlighted three brilliant individuals – all tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The deserved recipients of each $58,000 prize were Olivia Humphreys of Ireland, and Singaporean researchers Shane Kyi Hla Win and Danial Sufiyan Bin Shaiful – for their remarkable inventions in medicine and sustainability, respectively.
Athena: Contributing to a chemo-free future
For Olivia Humphreys, a 24-year-old designer from Ireland, the personal pain of watching her mother undergo chemotherapy fueled her invention, Athena. Named as the Medical category winner, Athena is a portable scalp-cooling device that offers an affordable alternative to current hair-loss prevention technologies. While traditional methods rely on expensive and immobile cooling systems that require hospital visits, Athena is designed to be cost-effective and user-friendly. At only 1/20th of the cost of traditional systems, Athena allows chemotherapy patients to prevent hair loss from the comfort of their own homes or even while commuting.
Traditional scalp cooling devices work by shrinking blood vessels in the scalp, limiting the blood flow and, therefore, the chemotherapy drugs reaching the hair follicles. Unfortunately, these devices are usually bulky, costly, and require patients to stay extra hours at the hospital, adding to the exhaustion of chemotherapy treatment. In contrast, Athena’s thermoelectric cooling technology offers patients a portable solution without sacrificing effectiveness.
James Dyson himself expressed admiration for Olivia’s innovation, noting, “Athena is a low-cost alternative available to everybody, with the potential to make a real difference.” For Olivia, the award prize money is the first step in her goal to make Athena widely accessible, potentially through partnerships with hospitals and cancer charities.
AirXeed Radiosonde: A sustainable solution to weather forecasting
In the Sustainability category, Singaporean postdoctoral researchers Shane Kyi Hla Win and Danial Sufiyan Bin Shaiful have reinvented weather monitoring with the airXeed Radiosonde. Their invention, inspired by the natural descent of maple seeds, addresses the environmental concerns surrounding current single use weather balloons. Every year, millions of weather balloons, equipped with radiosondes to collect atmospheric data, create vast amounts of plastic and electronic waste. airXeed Radiosonde offers a reusable, eco-friendly alternative that could significantly reduce the environmental impact of weather forecasting.
Using a design that mimics the spinning descent of a maple seed, the airXeed device avoids collision risks by adjusting its flight path based on machine learning inputs, making it both safe and reusable. James Dyson highlighted the cleverness of this innovation, remarking, “It’s a very clever idea that tackles the environmental cost of weather forecasting.” This controlled descent not only preserves the device for reuse but also increases data collection during the descent, leading to better forecasting accuracy.
With the James Dyson Award prize, Shane and Danial are eager to collaborate with meteorological agencies for further development and testing of the airXeed Radiosonde. Their goal is to bring this eco-friendly solution to weather stations worldwide, contributing to a cleaner, more sustainable approach to weather forecasting.
An All-Australian Idea
Closer to home, this year’s James Dyson Award National Winner stands out with a solution that aims to make the world a better place. Sorbet addresses Australia’s escalating waste crisis, especially in fast fashion, where the country leads globally in clothing purchases per capita, recently even surpassing the USA.
Sorbet confronts this issue by converting discarded textiles into sustainable acoustic panels, providing an innovative way to reduce waste and repurpose materials that would otherwise harm the environment. As the national James Dyson Award winner, Sorbet designer and RMIT student Sze Yek received $9,700 in funding to advance the project to its next development stage.
Innovation on a global scale
Each year, the James Dyson Award shines a light on young inventors who are dedicated to solving global issues. As Sir James Dyson reflected, “Instead of sitting back and talking about it, they’re doing something about it.” The award not only recognises innovation but also provides invaluable support to budding inventors on their journeys.
This year’s winners embody the spirit of problem-solving, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in medicine and sustainability. With innovations like Athena and airXeed Radiosonde, the future looks a little brighter – and a little kinder – for both patients and our planet.
