The winners of the international James Dyson Award competition have been announced. The best projects were a device to prevent hair loss during chemotherapy and a sustainable weather balloon. The creators of these concepts will each receive £30,000 for solving problems of global significance in the fields of medicine and sustainability.
The Athena project is an international winner in the field of medicine. Invented by 24-year-old designer Olivia Humphreys (Ireland), Athena is an affordable and portable device for patients undergoing chemotherapy. Olivia developed the device after witnessing her mother’s painful battle with cancer. It cools the scalp to prevent hair loss. Athena costs 1 ⁄20 the price of existing technology and can be used outside the hospital, reducing the time patients are forced to spend on the wards.
The airXeed Radiosonde project, on the other hand, is an international sustainability winner. Invented by PhD researchers Shane Kyi Hla Win and Danial Sufiyan Bin Shaiful (Singapore), airXeed is a reusable, nature-inspired sensor for weather forecasting. Unlike current weather balloons, it does not produce tonnes of plastic and electronic waste, and it descends like a maple seed to avoid aircraft collisions and land in designated collection zones.
This year, nearly 2,000 entries were received for the international student competition, which has already supported more than 400 problem-solving inventions by young engineers and scientists from around the world.
We launched the James Dyson Prize Competition almost 20 years ago to encourage university students to actively solve problems around them. Since then, we have received thousands of entries. It’s great to see so many students developing real solutions to serious global challenges. Rather than just talking about it, they are taking action on it – and that’s what the James Dyson Prize Competition encourages. This year we have two great winners who we are delighted to support and I hope the award will be a springboard for their future success,” said James Dyson about this year’s winners.
The medical winner – Athena, by Olivia Humphreys from Ireland.
The problem: Around 65-99% of patients undergoing chemotherapy will be affected by the hair loss associated with it. Current techniques to prevent hair loss use scalp cooling, a method that involves applying low temperatures directly to the scalp before, during and after chemotherapy. This reduces hair loss by constricting blood vessels and restricting blood flow. After chemotherapy, cooling can also help hair to grow back faster and stronger. However, it can also be very painful for patients. The availability of scalp cooling is limited due to its high cost. This year’s Medical Winner of the competition comes from Ireland, where the Minister of Health estimated the total cost of installing a scalp cooling device at as much as €216,000. This has to do with additional staff costs, as the treatment requires additional help to operate the equipment. An additional hurdle is ensuring that the equipment is properly fitted to the patient and the increased length of stay in hospital. Cheaper, manual cooling alternatives are also available, but these are less efficient and do not provide long-lasting results. Not all hospitals also offer scalp cooling for patients. In fact, in Ireland scalp cooling is only available in 8 of the 86 hospitals in the country.
The solution: Olivia Humphreys, a 24-year-old product design and technology graduate, invented the Athena device to solve these problems. Having witnessed the impact of chemotherapy-induced hair loss in her loved one, Olivia felt a strong need to act. When her mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2019, she spent time by her side during treatment, which inspired the creation of a technology to prevent hair loss. Athena is a portable, thermoelectric hair loss prevention device that works by cooling the scalp. It is more cost-effective and saves time compared to current hospital devices, while maintaining a high quality of treatment.
Current scalp cooling devices rely on technology that requires a constant power supply, forcing patients to arrive at the hospital 30 minutes before the infusion starts and stay for 90 minutes afterwards to cool the scalp before and after treatment. Athena is a battery-powered device weighing around 3kg, which consists of a portable case and a cooling cap that adjusts to different head shapes. This allows patients to spend less time in hospital on the day chemotherapy is administered. The device works by using inexpensive Peltiers-type thermoelectric semiconductors to cool the water circulating around the head through the intelligently designed cap.
With the Athena device, patients can start and stop the scalp cooling process themselves anywhere, for example in the comfort of their own home. At full power, the device can run for 3.5 hours, allowing patients to commute to and from the hospital during cooling and to move freely during infusion, for example to use the bathroom. Athena aims to restore control to patients at a time when they usually feel they have little control. Focused on the patient’s needs, the device has been designed with comfort and aesthetics in mind – Olivia has chosen bright colours that contrast with the typical clinical colours found in hospitals.
Athena is named after the powerful Greek goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, and for the winner, it symbolises resilience – a trait often possessed by those living with cancer and going through difficult treatment. According to Olivia, the estimated cost of Athena would be around €1,000, which is much lower than industrial devices that start at around €20,000. Athena could make hair loss prevention more accessible and affordable for both patients and healthcare providers – Olivia’s ideal scenario would involve working with hospitals and charities to offer Athena as part of a rental or loan scheme. Extensive research is needed to refine the device, and the prize money associated with winning the international James Dyson Award competition will help kick-start this. In the longer term, Olivia plans to research new technologies for future hair loss prevention methods beyond scalp cooling.
Sustainability winner – airXeed Radiosonde, authors Shane Kyi Hla Win and Danial Sufiyan Bin Shaiful from Singapore.
The problem: Every day, weather stations around the world launch devices using weather balloons to collect critical atmospheric data for accurate weather forecasting. These small devices, called radiosondes, measure air pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction and transmit this data back to ground stations, helping meteorologists track weather patterns and forecast conditions. However, the current devices are disposable and contribute to tonnes of plastic and e-waste around the world. Upon reaching high altitudes, the balloon carrying the device bursts and the sensor quickly descends, often crashing in remote locations without collecting further atmospheric data during descent.
There are 1,300 weather stations worldwide and it is predicted that they release at least two single radiosonde per day. Nearly one million radiosondes worth $190 million are released per year and it is estimated that this solution creates 48 tonnes of electronic waste.
These devices are critical to the fast-growing weather forecasting industry, valued at more than $2.25bn in 2023 and projected to reach approximately $5.23bn by 2032.This growth is being driven by the increasing demand for accurate weather forecasting in sectors such as agriculture, energy, transportation and aviation. Extreme weather events have also increased the demand for better forecasting systems.
The solution: this year’s global sustainability winner aims to make forecasting more environmentally friendly. AirXeed Radiosonde is a reusable device that addresses the amount of e-waste produced by disposable radiosonde on the market. It also aims to increase the amount of atmospheric data, improving the quality of forecasts.
Young engineers Shane Kyi Hla Win and Danial Sufiyan Bin Shaiful from the Singapore University of Technology and Design drew inspiration from nature to create the invention. To minimise electro-waste and minimise pollution in remote areas, they created the airXeed Radiosonde.
The team used maple seed autorotation in their solution. The asymmetrical shape creates lift and drag, allowing them to rotate like a helicopter as it falls. This not only slows the device down, preventing damage on impact with the ground, but also increases the likelihood of it landing in an accessible location, making it easier to recover and reuse. The team used machine learning to optimise this design for best flight performance. AirXeed’s controlled descent allows it to collect and transmit more atmospheric data to weather stations, as traditional radiosondes are unable to do.
In order to avoid collisions with aircraft and encountering very windy conditions that could interfere with descent, Shane and Danial’s device stops automatically rotating once it exceeds the aircraft’s cruising altitude. It then enters dive mode to increase speed. The team also added an onboard controller to manage the device’s stability and flight path to land without impact near the nearest reusable collection zone. This controller is augmented with machine learning to estimate the onboard wind speed and direction, as well as select the best place to land. Collection zones would be determined based on weather patterns and local authority cooperation. Equipped with GPS and flight navigation, the invention would select the optimum collection zone from a number of options at each weather station, ensuring a smooth return based on weather and flight trajectory.
Shane and Danial focused on sustainability in their choice of materials, using balsa wood and foam for the lightweight wing and cowl. Modular components allow for easy replacement and recycling of used parts.
After winning an award in the James Dyson Award Competition, Shane and Danial hope to work with more weather stations and weather sensor manufacturers to gather data and feedback to eventually bring airXeed Radiosonde to market.
Weather balloons that collect atmospheric information fall back to Earth and pollute the environment with electronic waste. Shane and Danial, our Sustainability Winners, have found a way to make the device return to earth where operators want it to land. It is a reusable weather detector that saves the environment and money. ‘I think it’s an innovative idea,’ concluded James Dyson, founder of Dyson.
source: press materials
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