The James Dyson Award competition is now open for entry.

Run by the James Dyson Foundation, this international student design and engineering competition invites aspiring inventors to submit novel ideas that tackle a pressing real-world problem and have the potential for global impact.

Open to all engineering and design students and recent graduates, the Award seeks ambitious designs that address a global issue, from cancer diagnosis to natural disasters, with global recognition offered to the winners along with a portion of a prize fund. Established in 2005, the Award has supported 400+ young inventors with more than $1.93 million in prize money over the years. Very importantly, more than two-thirds of past global winners have pursued the commercialisation of their ideas.

While the International Winner and global Sustainability Winner will scoop $57,500 to support their next steps, each National Winner in the 30 markets where the Award is run will receive $9,600.

Last year, RMIT student Alexander Burton won the Australian national award for his work on REVR, an innovative solution to electric vehicle retrofitting.

Automist, an invention by the 2009 International Winner Yusuf Muhammad, is a device that tackles domestic fires with an ingenious water misting mechanism that uses 10 times less water than a traditional system. Today, Muhammad runs a successful company that has installed over 13,000 systems and is currently securing international certification ahead of a prospective US launch.

Other past winners around the world have included:

  • The Golden Capsule (South Korea) – a hands-free intravenous (IV) device designed for disaster zones, which can be strapped to the patient and does not rely on gravity.
  • HOPES (Singapore) – a wearable device for pain-free, low-cost glaucoma testing that patients can do at home.
  • PlasticScanner (Netherlands) – an open-source scanning device to help fight plastic waste by detecting what type of plastic an item is.
  • BlueBox (Spain) – an at-home cancer screening solution designed to encourage more women to test for breast cancer.
  • mOm incubators (UK) – a low-cost collapsible, portable infant incubator, which has been successfully used to save babies’ lives in Ukraine.

Sir James Dyson, founder and chief engineer, says, “The world needs more doers – problem-solvers, not grandstanders, who are ready to take on the problems of our time. Every year the James Dyson Award gives young people a platform for their medical and environmental inventions, and much more besides. It’s their ‘wrong thinking’ that leads to breakthroughs, whether it’s the development of a new sustainable material, or the application of clever engineering principles to help improve people’s lives. I look forward to seeing what new inventions this year’s Award brings!”

To know more about the competition, head over to the James Dyson Award website.