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Remarkable People

Eight young inventors give us a 2-minute elevator pitch

By Loz Blain
July 30, 2011
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Young Aussie designers talk us through the designs that got them to the Australian finals of the James Dyson Awards
Young Aussie designers talk us through the designs that got them to the Australian finals of the James Dyson Awards
Young Aussie designers talk us through the designs that got them to the Australian finals of the James Dyson Awards

The James Dyson Awards for young inventors are always a treasure trove of fresh ideas and up-and-coming innovators - so we caught up with 8 of the Australian finalists and got them each to deliver us a 2-minute "elevator pitch" explaining their designs and the inspiration behind them. The videos after the jump highlight some of our favorite entries for this year's prize, including the winners. See if you can guess which of these young contestants took the prizes!

The James Dyson Award is an international event that brings together products and inventions from young creators all over the world. Last week saw the Australian finals, held in Melbourne as part of the Australian International Design Awards event.

Our pitch to these young Aussie inventors was simple - give us your 2-minute spiel telling us the who, what, why and how of your invention. Here's what they came back with - skip to the bottom if you want to find out who won!

Alexander Vittouris: Ajiro

Berty Bhuruth: Optimetric

Christina Heggie: Mass Rescue Board

Joshua Sunghoon Mun: Liquid Nitrogen Carrier

Chris Fox: 9th Life

Ben Lau: Emergency Flotation Device

Ed Linacre: AirDrop Irrigation

Eric Chau: HyJack

You can read full project details of each of the finalists at the Dyson Awards website.

...and the winners were:

Highly Commended prize: Ed Linacre's AirDrop Irrigation

Bronze Prize: Christina Heggie's Mass Rescue Board

Silver Prize: Chris Fox's 9th Life

And the winner, from Sydney, was Joshua Sunghoon Mun's Liquid Nitrogen carrier - a product the judges said "took an everyday, often overlooked problem and applied research, design and innovation to provide a sound solution." Joshua and a few of the other candidates will go on to the international round of the Dyson awards, vying for a UKP20,000 prize, split between the designer and their university or institution.

So there you go. Personally, for pure wow factor, I loved Alex Vittouris' concept of growing a recumbent tricycle frame out of bamboo, opening up the possibility of single-piece 3D frame shapes that can't be economically produced in more common materials.

We wish all the finalists well in their future endeavors, and would love to continue hearing what they're up to.

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Remarkable PeopleAustraliaYoung InventorsVideoJames Dyson Awards
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Loz Blain
Loz leads the New Atlas team as Editorial Director, after nearly two decades as one of our most versatile writers. He's also proven himself as a photographer, videographer, presenter, producer and podcast engineer. A graduate in Psychology, former business analyst and touring musician, he's covered just about everything for New Atlas, concentrating lately on clean energy, AI, humanoid robotics, next-gen aircraft, and the odd bit of music, motorcycles and automotive.
5 comments
Neil Larkins
A liquid nitrogen carrier won! By gadfreys, it\'s about time someone came up with it. Many years have I said to my wife, \"Honey, I long for a liquid nitrogen carrier to be invented so I can carry mine around...if I had any.\"
voluntaryist
I picked the Airdrop. It could benefit millions: Life rafts, drought ridden areas, desert growers, survival situations where the water is not safe or sparse. For example, on the big island in Hawaii people rely on rain water catchment but that fails occasionally and water must be trucked in. In west Texas the water well hard to find so we find the lowest populated county in the U.S. (67). This would open up land use.
lukemendes
Ed Linacre\'s AirDrop Irrigation system and the approach to its design looks like it will emerge the most useful in the world.
Minimalistic, less complex, high efficiency designs requires the most thought. Great going Ed. Keep coming up with more solution the world needs.
ilovegizmag
I like bamboo, and that car design is wonderful! I want one!
Hamish Robertson
The airdrop technology is great but what powers it? It seems to work a bit like a fridge which would require a source of pressure. Wouldn\'t it need to be connected to a windmill or something to make it work.
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