2023 James Dyson Award global winners announced

GURUGRAM, India, Nov. 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The James Dyson Award, the international design award, announced its three global winners: an International winner, a Sustainability winner, and a Humanitarian winner. Selected by Sir James Dyson, each will receive £30,000 to support the next stages of their inventions.

Commenting on this year's competition, Sir James Dyson said, "Rather than grandstanding about the problems we face, these young inventors are getting on and solving them with technology and design. It's their passion and determination to improve the world that makes them so impressive, and I hope the Award will give them a springboard to success." 

Humanitarian winner – The Life Chariot, invented by Piotr Tłuszcz

As he watched the conflict unfold in Ukraine, young inventor Piotr observed the challenges of medical evacuations across challenging terrain. This inspired him to design The Life Chariot, a MEDEVAC off-road ambulance that can attach to any hook-equipped vehicle. The vehicle's low weight and suspension makes it safer for a casualty to travel in than the boot of a car.

The Life Chariot increases the evacuation capabilities of rescue teams by adding room for one injured person on a stretcher and two more seats for medics or the lightly wounded. The initial two builds have been given to the Ukrainian Medical Military Unit and the Polish Voluntary Medic Unit of Damian Duda 'W Międzyczasie' Foundation, having been tested in terrains such as mountain trails, forests, caves and mines.

"This year the James Dyson Award gives a special Humanitarian prize to Piotr, who has designed an ingenious way of recovering injured people from challenging terrain. The Life Chariot can be towed by anything – allowing medics to do their life-saving work with the resources they have at hand. It's also brilliant to see his iterative design process continue in response to feedback from those using it on the ground," said Sir James Dyson, Founder and Chief Engineer at Dyson.

Piotr is continuing to implement upgrades to The Life Chariot based on feedback received from medics working on the front line. He is also working on adapting the vehicle for mountain rescue purposes.

On winning the 2023 James Dyson Award, Piotr said, "I hope that The Life Chariot, with support from the James Dyson Award, will continue to save lives, whether in frontline evacuations or rescues from accidents in inaccessible places."

International winner – The Golden Capsule, invented by Yujin Chae, Daeyeon Kim, Yeonghwan Shin and Yuan Bai

The Turkish-Syrian earthquakes in February 2023 resulted in over 55,000 casualties, with a further 100,000 injured.¹ Throughout the evacuation process, medics had to move through harsh environments while carrying several IV packs in their hands for their patients.

In response to this problem, a team of student inventors from Hongik University in Seoul designed The Golden Capsule, a non-powered and hands-free IV device which uses elastic forces and air pressure differences rather than gravity. This means that medics in disaster zones do not have to hold up IV packs while transporting patients, and electricity is not required to control the infusion rate.

"The team has identified the limitations of existing IV injection methods, which rely on gravity and electricity, in disaster zones. Their Golden Capsule offers a much more practical, hands-free solution, using a pressurised bladder, which can be positioned anywhere, such as strapped to the patient's side. This slowly deflates, pressurising the drip into the patient, leaving medics free to perform other life-saving work," said Sir James Dyson, Founder and Chief Engineer at Dyson.

On designing their winning invention, the team said, "We saw the difficulties medics and first responders faced at natural disaster sites when transporting patients with IVs, and feedback for our solution has been positive so far. Ultimately, we hope to establish this as the new standard for IV packs, not only in emergency situations, but in hospitals too."

Sustainability winner – E-COATING, invented by Hoi Fung Ronaldo Chan and Can Jovial Xiao

E-COATING is an eco-friendly solution that solves two problems in one. It is created from recycled waste glass and can be applied to exterior roofs and walls to reflect the sun's rays thereby reducing the heat absorption of buildings. This reduces the amount of electricity consumed on cooling solutions like air-conditioning and mitigates the associated greenhouse gas emissions.

"Ronaldo and Jovial have come up with a clever way to turn waste into something much more valuable. E-COATING uses recycled glass to create a coating to put on exterior walls. This reflects the sun's rays, and therefore saves a substantial proportion of the electricity needed to cool the building. It is a dual solution that is good for the environment and saves money," said Sir James Dyson, Founder and Chief Engineer at Dyson.

The Award will support the team's plans to advance E-COATING's adhesion and ease of application. They will also investigate new E-COATING formulas for indoor use.

After speaking to Sir James Dyson; Ronaldo and Jovial said, "We invented E-COATING with a desire to help tackle the serious environmental problems our planet is facing. The prize money will allow us to further our research and development goals and start a company to take our invention to the next level."

 About Dyson

• Dyson is a global technology company with engineering and testing operations in the UK, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Dyson employs over 14,000 people globally including 6,000 engineers and scientists.
• Dyson's research programme now spans the US, Japan, China, Philippines, UK, Singapore and Malaysia. In the UK the restored World War Two Hullavington airfield has been transformed in Dyson's second UK Technology Campus. Alongside Dyson's 750-acre campus at Hullavington, the 75-acre Technology Campus in Malmesbury completed a multimillion-pound refurbishment programme in 2019.
• In November 2020, Dyson announced that it will double its portfolio of products and enter entirely new fields by 2025 – taking it beyond the home for the first time. The company revealed a £2.75 billion investment plan into new technologies and new products over the next five years. The investments will be focused in Singapore, the UK, and the Philippines, and are backed by plans to hire additional engineers and scientists in fields such as software, machine learning and robotics.
• Dyson's campus in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, UK, is home to The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology which opened in September 2017 and in 2020 became the first education provider to be given New Degree Awarding Powers. Dyson has invested £31.5 million into The Dyson Institute to date. The Dyson Institute's Undergraduate Engineers pay zero tuition fees and earn a full salary. As well as their degree studies, they work on real-life projects alongside world-experts in Dyson's global engineering, research and technology teams on Dyson's UK Campus. From day one they contribute to new technologies to improve lives all around the world. It is more than a job, and more than a degree, and although the aspiration is that they remain long after graduation, they are not tied to Dyson.
• The James Dyson Foundation works internationally to inspire young people about engineering: from school children up to university students and graduates. The James Dyson Award is the James Dyson Foundation's international design competition, which celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers. It's open to current and recent design and engineering students.

¹ https://www.redcross.org.uk/stories/disasters-and-emergencies/world/turkey-syria-earthquake