Dyson announces Canadian national James Dyson Award winner

Two PHD students from the University of Toronto have just been named as the national winners for the James Dyson Award. The project Robert Brooks and Justin Wee submitted is called ForceFilm. It’s a patent-pending thin surgical instrument add-on that accurately measures the forces exerted on tissue from minimally invasive surgery, a procedure that has supposedly been on the rise because of less surgical issues associated with it. Brooks and Wee designed ForceFilm to retrofit any standard rigid MIS instrument. The forces that the film detects will be wirelessly sent to the surgeon so he or she gets live force feedback that will let him or her know if dangerous levels of forces are close. The two have been award $3,400 for the win.

They will be heading into the next stage of the James Dyson Award, where a panel of Dyson engineers will shortlist 20 projects from the 23 participating countries. The two are joined by four other teams with three of them also working on medical devices and one an athletic equipment add-on.

James Dyson Award now looking for 2016 entries

For the first time ever last year, a Canadian team took home the international prize for the James Dyson Award. Now, if you want to follow in the footsteps of the four engineering students from the University of Waterloo, you can start sending in those entries. Run by the James Dyson Foundation, the James Dyson Award is now open to 22 countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA.

You have until July 19^th to submit your entries. The national winners and finalists will be announced on September 8^th and the shortlist will be released on September 29^th. The winning team and finalists will be announced on October 27^th. The international winner stands to win $60,000 for the student and $10,000 for the student’s university department. There will be two international runners-up that will take home $10,000 each. The national winners, on the other hand, will take home $4,000 each.

Canadian team wins James Dyson Award

For the first time a Canadian team won the international James Dyson Award. Four engineering students from the University of Waterloo—Jesus Zozaya, Alroy Ameida, James Pickard, and Katarina Ilic—made the Voltera V-One, a laptop-sized printed circuit board (PCB) printer to help SMEs and startups bring new tech into the market without the unnecessary expense that comes with having to develop new electronics. The machine makes prototype PCBs using the principles that underpin 3D printing.

Describing the process, the Voltera V-One lays down conductive and insulating inks to create a functional, two-layer circuit board. The machine also has a solder paste dispenser to allow components to be added to the board and it’s then reflowed by a 550w heater. As winners of the James Dyson Award, the team takes home $54,000 to further develop the idea.

James Dyson Award now open for entries

If you’re a university or college student studying product design, industrial design, and engineering and have a great idea you want to implement, the James Dyson Award is now looking for entries for this year’s competition. The competition looks for solutions to real-life problems from young scientists or engineers. But participants are encouraged to use less and design with the environment in mind. This year, the competition is open to 20 countries. Now, students in Taiwan and Hong Kong can also join. The international winner can stand a chance to win $54,000 for himself/herself and $9,000 for his/her university department.

The competition will be open for entries until July 2. The entrants will need to submit evidence of prototypes as well as stories detailing their design process and inspiration. The international winner will be announced by James Dyson on November 10. You can find out more information here.