Dyson Award hopefuls look to transform urban living

The shortlist for this year’s James Dyson Award has been announced, with 20 students from around the world nominated for their engineering inventions.

Several of this year’s cohort have come up with concepts designed to improve urban living, including plastic cutlery made from potato waste, a robot to combat water pollution and prefabricated ants nests for the cultivation of the insects as a food source.    

“The breadth and ambition of the entries we have seen this year is outstanding,” said Peter Gammock, VP of Design and New Technology at Dyson. “Young engineers are restless in the face of global issues, and they see technology as a catalyst for creating a better future. They demonstrate clearly how simple ingenious concepts have the power to revolutionise the way people live.”

One entry that has grabbed the judges’ attention is Lighthouse, a soft robot that can detect leaks inside water pipes. As the robot passively flows through a pipe and navigates around pipe elbows, a sensor is tugged by the suction force of a water leak. When a leak is detected, Lighthouse measures the strength of the tug and records the location. Inventor You Wu said the inspiration for the robot came from his childhood in China, where water shortages were a regular occurrence.