James Dyson Award 2024 goes to an anti-fall device for cancer patients and a sustainable weather sensor

James Dyson Award has announced that the awards for this 2024 edition have been given to Athena, a device designed to prevent hair loss in chemotherapy patients, and AirXeed Radiosonde, a reusable weather sensor that reduces electronic waste.

These have been the world winners in the Medicine and Sustainability categories, respectively, who have been victorious in this international competition for design students and which this year has received almost 2,000 proposals.

The first of them is Athenea, designed by Irish product design and technology graduate Olivia Humphreys, who has invented a device to combat hair loss as a result of chemotherapy treatment.

Between 65 and 99 percent of patients undergoing it suffer or will suffer from this problem, which is currently treated by cooling the scalp, a method that involves applying freezing temperatures in this area before, during and after the session.

These products use refrigeration technology that requires a constant connection to the power, so the patient must arrive at the hospital 30 minutes in advance and stay 90 minutes after the infusion for the prior and subsequent cooling of the affected area.

Current techniques mitigate hair loss by constricting blood vessels and limiting blood flow to the scalp. However, it is a practice that can be very painful for some patients, which is why Humphreys has developed a helmet-shaped, portable thermoelectric device that apply cold to the scalp more cost-effectively, agile and without compromising the quality of the treatment.

This one has a weight of 3 kg, works with batteries up to 3.5 hours with maximum power and allows the patient to spend less time in the hospital. In addition, they can start and finish the cooling process themselves from wherever they want, even in their own home.

Likewise, this system will allow patients “to have more freedom, recovering part of their day, and also free up very precious time in the chemotherapy chair for other patients to receive their treatment,” in the words of the consultant oncologist at the Royal United Hospital of Bath (England), Mark Beresford.

The estimated cost of Athena It is about 1,000 eurosa figure lower than that of the machines in the sector, whose price is around 20,000 euros, so that it is presented as a more accessible and affordable system for both patients and healthcare professionals.

AORXEED RADIOSONDE

The other winner of the James Dyson Award 2024 in the Sustainability category has been awarded to engineers ShaneKyi Hla Win and Danial Sufiyan Bin Shaiful, from Singapore. Your project, airXeed Radiosondeaspires for the weather prediction is more respectful of the environment.

Dyson recalled that every day weather stations around the world launch devices from weather balloons that collect atmospheric data, called radiosondes, which measure elements such as temperature, humidity or atmospheric pressure. All of them are transmitted to ground stations.

However, these are single-use and create tons of plastic and electronic waste around the world, and after reaching high altitudes, the balloon that transports them explodes and the sensors descend quickly, crashing in remote and expensive places to recover.

These devices are crucial to the rapidly growing weather forecasting sector driven by increasing demand for accurate forecasts in sectors such as agriculture, energy, transportation and aviation.

To achieve a more sustainable procedure, airSeed Radiosonde has been presented as a reusable device that addresses the amount of electronic waste generated by single-use radiosondes on the market and that aims to increase the amount of atmospheric data collected by these devices, with the objective of improving the quality of forecasts.

To arrive at this solution, the team used the autorotation of maple seeds. Its symmetrical shape creates lift and resistancewhich allows you to rotate when falling. This not only slows down the device, preventing it from being damaged upon impact with the ground, but also increases the likelihood that it will land in an accessible location and can be recovered for reuse.

Likewise, the team of researchers has used machine learning to optimize this design and get the best flight performance, with a controlled descent that allows them to collect and transmit more atmospheric data to weather stations, because traditional radiosondes cannot do so.

The device, equipped with flight navigation and GPS, has an onboard controller to manage its stability and flight path, which is enhanced with machine learning to estimate the speed and direction of the wind on boardas well as to select the best landing site.