James Dyson Award 2012 lays down challenge to students

The 2012 James Dyson Award has opened its call for entries. This year young designers and inventors has been asked to develop a problem solving invention.

The award invites engineering and design students and graduates to submit their groundbreaking ideas by 2 August 2012. The overall winner, to be announced on 8 November, will receive £10,000 to develop their invention and an additional £10,000 will go to their university department. Two international runners-up will receive a £2,000 prize and a certificate, national winners (up to nine from each country) will receive £1,000 and a certificate.

Dyson said: "Young people have an unsullied view of the world. Budding engineers and designers can use their fresh perspective to develop wonderfully simple solutions to baffling problems. Original ideas and rigorously engineered projects will attract the attention of the judges. I challenge applicants to think big and use the award as a springboard for your idea."

Last year’s winner, Edward Linacre, from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, invented Airdrop, a low cost, self-powered, and easy-to-install solution for crop growing in arid regions.

Inspired by Australia’s worst drought in a century, Linacre reproduced a desert beetle’s technique of capturing moisture from air. Relying on the principle that even the driest air contains water molecules, Airdrop pumps air through a network of underground pipes and cools the air to the point of condensation. Water is then delivered to the roots of plants.

The award is open to any university level student of product design, industrial design or engineering, (or graduate within four years of graduation) who is studying or studied in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UK and USA.

For more on the competition visit www.jamesdysonaward.org.

TechCentral Reporters

Pictured: 2011 James Dyson Best of Irish winner Chris Murphy and top 15 global finalist Ronan Leahy

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