- SmartHEAL, A sensible sensor for dressings which signifies how effectively a wound is therapeutic by measuring its pH degree, invented by college students from Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
- Polyformer, A machine that recycles plastic bottles into inexpensive 3D printer filament for growing nations, invented by college students from McMaster University, Canada
- Ivvy, A wearable alternative for the present intravenous drip pole equipment, enhancing consolation and mobility for sufferers, invented by Charlotte Blancke from the University of Antwerp, Belgium
MUMBAI, India, Nov. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The James Dyson Award has given greater than £1m in prize cash to over 300 promising innovations from younger engineers and scientists all over the world. This yr, Sir James Dyson has chosen two international winners, every receiving £30,000, and one runner-up, receiving £5,000 in prize cash, to assist the following levels of their innovations.
Commenting on this yr’s competitors, Sir James Dyson stated, “Every year, the James Dyson Award offers proof that young people are passionate about improving the planet and solving environmental and medical problems. There are people who grandstand over the issues they care about, but these young inventors are doing something more productive. They are diligently applying themselves to problem-solving using engineering, science and ingenious design.”
The profitable innovations
International winner – SmartHEAL, invented by Tomasz Raczyński, Dominik Baraniecki and Piotr Walter
The downside
When coated by a dressing, it is extremely laborious to know the way effectively a wound is therapeutic. The commonest mistake in wound therapeutic is altering the dressing too typically, which might result in infections and tissue disruption.1
Current strategies of assessing a wound depend on subjective scoring of color, scent, temperature – or costly laboratory biochemical assessments.2 Poor wound therapeutic not solely results in tissue irritation, but in addition necrosis (dying of physique tissue that’s irreversible), and may result in extreme sickness or dying.
The answer
SmartHEAL is a exact, inexpensive and scalable sensible pH sensor for dressings. By utilizing Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) communication programs and monitoring the pH of a wound, SmartHEAL can assess the wound’s situation and detect an infection with out eradicating the dressing, and due to this fact with out disrupting the tissue.3 Medical professionals can subsequently analyse the information and prescribe the suitable remedy for the wound. Smart bandages create and protect a balanced wound surroundings.4
“We’ve all nervously peeled back a dressing or plaster to see what is happening underneath. SmartHEAL, a smart dressing, has won the International James Dyson Award because it provides doctors and patients with a key piece of data – the pH level – that can tell them how a wound is healing. This can improve treatment and prevent infection, saving lives. I hope the Award will give the team impetus to proceed down the tricky path towards commercialisation.” – Sir James Dyson, Founder and Chief Engineer at Dyson.
Next steps
The staff will end testing after which begin medical trials. Their purpose is to then end the certification course of in three years’ time to allow them to begin to distribute and promote SmartHEAL dressings in 2025.
On profitable the James Dyson Award International prize, the SmartHEAL staff stated, “We are super excited to be the International Winners of the James Dyson Award this year. This is and will be a great opportunity for us to become a part of something bigger, something that hopefully can change the world. We strive to refine our prototype, obtain a patent and pass the necessary clinical trials to commercialise SmartHEAL. We were honoured to be greeted by Sir James Dyson himself. His words: ‘Congratulations! You are the International winners of the James Dyson Award‘ still ring in our ears – we’re still in disbelief, joy and happiness.“
Sustainability winner – Polyformer, invented by Swaleh Owais and Reiten Cheng
The downside
While working at a makerspace in Rwanda, Swaleh and Reiten discovered that many locals couldn’t use the makerspace’s 3D printers, because of the excessive worth of importing filament to the nation.5 They additionally noticed the dearth of infrastructure to recycle plastic bottles in Rwanda.
The answer
Polyformer is a low-cost machine that turns plastic bottles into 3D printer filament. Polyformer cuts plastic bottles into lengthy strips which are fed into an extruder. The strip is then thermoformed into 1.75mm filament, because it goes by way of a nozzle. The filament is handed by way of vents to chill the plastic earlier than it’s wrapped round a spool, able to be inserted right into a 3D printer.
The invention is focused at growing nations because of the excessive worth of importing 3D printer filament. With Polyformer, makers have simpler entry to low-cost, high-quality 3D printer filament. This encourages utilization of design infrastructure and profession consideration in growing nations, whereas empowering makers to recycle their very own waste and use the output productively. 6
“By turning used plastic bottles into 3D printer filament, Polyformer helps reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and provides a cheap and plentiful material for engineers and designers, especially in developing countries. Their idea will provide new opportunities for other inventors to prototype their ideas using 3D printing.” – Sir James Dyson, Founder and Chief Engineer at Dyson.
Currently, Swaleh and Reiten are constructing new Polyformers to deploy at their accomplice makerspaces in Rwanda and they’re designing new innovations throughout the Polyformer undertaking, such because the Polyjoiner, Polydryer, Polyspooler, and lots of extra.
After talking to Sir James Dyson, Swaleh and Reiten stated, “It is a great honor to be the James Dyson Award 2022 Sustainability winner. We are using the prize money to deploy several Polyformers and Polyformer-Lites at our partner makerspaces in Rwanda. With these machines, local students, designers, and makers in Rwanda will have access to low-cost 3D printer filament. This means they can use their community’s 3D printers more frequently. If you would like to build your own Polyformer, please check out our Discord.“
1 https://www.cornerstoneuc.com/2021/04/23/side-effects-of-improper-wound-care/
2 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssensors.1c00552
3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4486717/#:~:text=pH%20has%20a%20significant%20role,at%2Drisk%20or%20infected%20wounds.
4 https://www.news-medical.net/health/How-Could-Smart-Bandages-Revolutionize-Wound-Care.aspx
5 https://www.ic3dprinters.com/trade-wars-and-tariffs-a-3d-printing-perspective/
6 https://www.forbes.com/sites/richarddaveni/2019/03/19/how-3d-printing-can-jumpstart-developing-economies/
NOTES TO EDITORS
The James Dyson Award types a part of a wider dedication by Sir James Dyson, to reveal the ability of engineers to alter the world. The competitors has supported over 300 innovations with prize cash, and is run by the James Dyson Foundation, an engineering-education charity funded by Dyson earnings.
The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology and the Foundation’s work encourage aspiring engineers and downside solvers, to use their information and uncover new methods to enhance lives by way of expertise. To date, James and the James Dyson Foundation have contributed over £140m to boundary-breaking ideas in training and different charitable causes.
This contains £12m to Imperial College London to create the Dyson School of Design Engineering, and £8m to Cambridge University to create the Dyson Centre for Engineering Design and the James Dyson Building.
At college degree, the James Dyson Foundation provides robotics workshops, led by Dyson engineers, and supplies free academic sources. These embody its most up-to-date launch, Engineering Solutions: Air Pollution: introducing younger folks to air air pollution and engineering’s position find options.
The Foundation additionally helps medical analysis and the local people in Malmesbury the place Dyson’s UK workplaces are based mostly. Last summer season, the Dyson Cancer Centre at Royal United Hospitals in Bath broke floor, and the Foundation continues to assist the Race Against Dementia Dyson Fellow, Dr Claire Durrant, in accelerating discovering higher remedies for Alzheimer’s illness.
The Foundation has an internet site, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
