Simply, design something that solves a problem: James Dyson Awards open

February 7th, 2012

Albert Einstein once said: “A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.”

Obviously, the genius German physicist wasn’t trying to farm in the Australian outback (he was wise enough not to try), where devastating droughts inspired one Aussie to invent an irrigation device that takes water from air and channels it back to plants.

The Airdrop system by Edward Linacre was last year’s Dyson Design Award winner. “Winning the James Dyson Award means I can develop and test the Airdrop system,” said Linacre after winning the award.

The inventor with his Airdrop, Dyson Design Awards winner 2011

“The extensive publicity for my design has also opened a lot of doors for me. Airdrop has the potential to help farmers around the world and I’m up for the challenge of rolling it out.”

Entries open for James Dyson Design Awards

Now, entries for the prestigious international awards have opened up for the eighth year and will remain open until 2 August. The competition is open to graduates (or recent graduates) in the fields of product design, industrial design and engineering.

The awards were created by the British inventor’s charitable trust to encourage the next generation of designers to create, challenge, and invent.

Einstein

The brief for the project is to “Design something that solves a problem.”

There are £10,000 pounds at stake for the first prize winner and £2,000 for the two runner ups.

Airdrop Irrigation

Another noteworthy appliance invention to win an award in 2009 was the Automist. It is a kitchen tap that doubles as a fire sprinkler that was designed to combat the 60 per cent of domestic fires in the UK that originate in the kitchen.

Einstein also said: “Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple.”

Tell us! Are you a garage inventor? Have you been stuck by inspiration and developed something that will make life simpler?

Keri Algar

Having once had to sit on the washing machine to stop it from bouncing into oblivion, Keri is today delighted with the new (smoother running) technologies that make housework easier every day. A self-confessed lazy-bones, Keri seeks out quirky inventions that ease the human workload, such as the robotic vacuum cleaner (wow). And as soon as someone figures out a Jetsons-like self-cleaning house, she will happily lay her pen to rest and retire from appliance journalism. Until then, her pick is a fridge that will tell her smartphone when it's time to pick up more beer on the way home. Magic.