A prototype invention by an RMIT student that aims to reduce fossil fuel emissions in the transportation industry has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2023 James Dyson Award. The Australian entry REVR, invented by Alexander Burton, who won the national James Dyson Award 2023, joins the global shortlist of 20 pioneering inventions, from which a global winner will be selected for the AU$50,000 top prize to support the next stage of their invention.

The James Dyson Award is a global engineering award that calls on students and recent graduates to create a design that solves a problem. The 2023 shortlist of the best 20 international entries was selected by 14 Dyson engineers from across the world.

Burton’s electric vehicle retrofit invention aims to address the problem of fossil fuel emissions from vehicles, which account for around 8 billion tonnes of CO2 globally every year. REVR hopes to reduce the carbon footprint of the transportation industry, which accounts for 20% of global emissions. Given the high price tag of electric vehicles, the retrofit kit converts the internal combustion engines in cars to hybrid electric, significantly decreasing the cost of greener transport.

“Climate change has highlighted how heavily we rely on cars that now need to be made electric. Replacing the entire fleet with new EVs will be too slow, too expensive and emit billions of tons of CO2 during their manufacture. Approaching this problem with modern motor technology has led me to a new approach to retrofits, which I've named REVR. This is a powerful electric retrofit kit that can be quickly installed in the wheels of almost any vehicle."

The global Top 20 shortlist also includes Turkey’s entry, ForestGuard 2.0, conceptualised in response to the devastating wildfires that tore through the country in recent years. Created by a team from Istanbul Bilgi University, the invention uses sensor-to-satellite technology to alert authorities at the earliest sign of a potential wildfire, hoping to vastly reduce the risk in future years.

Singapore’s young inventor E Ian Siew was motivated by his difficult experience recovering from open-heart surgery to create a better solution. Consulting with experts from the National University Hospital in Singapore, he created a vest-like device for post-operative rehabilitation, which improves support for the fusion of the sternum bone after surgery.

In the Philippines, young entrepreneur Jeremy De Leon created Make-roscope, a simple keychain tool that turns a smartphone or tablet into a microscope. Improving access to laboratory tools for students across the world has potentially huge implications for the future generation of scientists, and the invention has already been used by over 3,000 Filipino students and teachers.

So what does it take to make the shortlist?

“The inventor needs to demonstrate that they really understand how their idea will work; they need to show that they have thought about how their idea can be realised in a robust way and that it will stand up to the challenges it will face in use. Some of the best entries we saw demonstrated that they had failed along their design process, but learnt from these failures and made their designs even better,” Rachael Pink, head of technology development at Dyson says.

The 14 Dyson engineers forming the panel for this year’s Top 20 work across Dyson R&D centres in Singapore, the UK, Malaysia and the Philippines, and specialise in engineering fields including sustainability, electronics, manufacturing, acoustics and energy storage.

“The James Dyson Award provides a platform for young inventors to showcase their innovative ideas on a global stage. It was refreshing to see so many inventions offering solutions ranging across medicine and sustainability,” says Hong Fei Hu, head of electronics at Dyson.

The global winners of the competition will be announced on 15 November 2023.

The Top 20 Shortlist (in alphabetical order)

Invention | Inventor(s) | Country

AISIG | Ikuya Tanaka, Sergio and Narushima Masaaki | Japan

Auxobrace | Eian Siew | Singapore

AVA | Javier Pascual Paredes | Spain

Boreas | Piotr Falkowski, Bazyli Leczkowski, Maciej Pikuliński and Anna Pastor | Poland

E-COATING | Hoi Fung, Ronaldo Chan and Can Xiao | Hong Kong

Ergotech | George Clarke | Ireland

ForestGuard 2.0 | Ecem Ertan, Onur Sertgil, Rana Imam Esirger and Suat Batuhan Esirger | Turkey

Gutsy | Charlotte Böhning | US

LEKA | Ximena García Ortega | Mexico

Lunet | David Edquilang | US

Make-rosco pe | Jeremy De Leon | Philippines

Oasis | Joel Olympio | Ireland

os*tomy | Nikolaus Potapow | Austria

Pleural | Daniel Hale, Yihan Dong, Fergus Laidlaw and William Eliot | UK

Pre-Podium | Nick Holland | NewZealand

REVR | Alexander Burton | Australia

Shuimu Breathing | Fang Yuan and Zhang Mouwei | China

The Golden Capsule | Shin Young Hwan, Chae Yoo Jin, Bai Yuan, Kim Dae Yeon | Korea

The Life Chariot | Piotr Tłuszcz | Poland

WhaleSafe | Collin Bolt, Benjamin Beazley and Jake Chateauneuf | Canada

Branko Miletic

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