[ad_1]
A novel material made from decaying fruits and vegetables that absorbs the sun’s ultraviolet light and converts it into renewable energy has earned its designer the first sustainability gong at this year’s James Dyson Awards.
Out of a record 1,800 entries, despite the challenges of Covid-19, the award was given to Carvey Ehren Maigue, 27, a student at the University of Mapúa in the Philippines, for his Aureus system, which uses natural scientific principles. behind the north. lights.
The other grand prize in the international competition has been awarded to the inventor of a low-cost biomedical device that can be used at home to detect breast cancer, taking advantage of artificial intelligence to analyze urine.
Aureus is made from crop debris and can be attached to window and wall panels. It allows high-energy photons to be absorbed by luminescent particles derived from fruits and vegetables, which re-emit them as visible light. Unlike solar panels, the system is effective even when it is not directly in the sun because it can pick up ultraviolet rays through clouds and bounce off walls, sidewalks, and other buildings.
Maigue, who was forced to return to the drawing board with his invention after an earlier version proved too expensive, said: “Winning the James Dyson Award is both a beginning and an end. It marked the end of years of doubting whether my idea would have global relevance. I want to create a better form of renewable energy that uses the world’s natural resources, is close to people’s lives, forging achievable paths to a sustainable and regenerative future.
The two overall winners, each receiving a cash prize of £ 30,000 to further develop their inventions, were praised by the judges for tackling issues of global importance; sustainable methods to generate renewable energy efficiently and women who are not screened for breast cancer.
The overall international award went to 23-year-old graduate student Judit Giró Benet for her Blue Box, which offers a simple at-home alternative to routine mammography.
Benet, from Tarragona, Spain, and now studying at the University of California, Irvine, was inspired by her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis and, with 40% of women not attending their mammograms, the need for a less invasive and more accessible alternative. . His early work explored the evidence that dogs had detected cancer in humans after sniffing their breath.
Now in its 15th year, the James Dyson Award operates in 27 countries and is open to students and recent graduates studying product design, industrial design, and engineering. Recognize and reward imaginative design solutions to global problems.
Tire Collective, a group of Master’s students from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art, was one of two finalists for their solution to the growing environmental scourge of tire wear caused by road transport. The other is Scope, from students at the University of Waterloo, Canada, who designed a new lens that uses liquid crystals to deliver high-quality zoom photography on mobile phone cameras.
