Who Won the 2018 UK Dyson Award?

Nicolas Orellana and Yaseen Noorani are the deserved winners of this year’s UK Dyson Award with their O-Wind Turbine. With inflatable incubators and portable vaccine cooling devices amongst some of the previous winners, Orellana and Noorani are in good company - as discussed in our previous post ‘Past Winners of the UK Dyson Award’

But what was the inspiration behind the O-Wind? And who just missed out on the top spot? Read on as we discuss everything you need to know about the 2018 UK Dyson Award.

The runners-up

Nicolas and Yaseen beat their opponents to the top spot, but there are two, equally impressive, runners up. Both Will de Brett and Bukki Adedapo fought off countless competitors to place in the top three, with their inventions, Mi Plug and Gilassi Finetunes, respectively.

Will de Brett was motivated to create the Mi Plug when watching his elderly grandparents struggling with a 3-pin plug. The Mi Plug is a waterproof, safe alternative to traditional plugs, with stackable plastic plugs and a transmitter in the socket.

Gilassi Finetunes, on the other hand, are prescription glasses that can be transformed into sunglasses with just the click of a button. Bukki Adedapo was motivated by his dislike for photochromic lenses and their slow transition period.

Both the Mi Plug and the Gilassi Finetunes are clearly impressive, innovative products. So, what product was deemed even more useful and remarkable?

About the winners

Nicolas, 36, and Yaseen, 24, are both MSc students at Lancaster University, studying International Innovation. The idea was sparked by Nicolas’ interest in NASA’s flawed Tumbleweed rover. The inflatable ball was designed to bounce and roll across Mars’s surface to measure atmospheric conditions. However, the rover was powered only by unidirectional wind blows, severely impairing its mobility, leading to the project being a failure.

To find out more about the high-accuracy assessment of atmospheric conditions, take a look at the article ‘Using an intrinsically safe optical gas imaging camera to measure separator sand in explosive atmospheres’

Both Nicolas and Yaseen took the limitations of this project into consideration and developed three-dimensional wind turbine technology. This new concept allows the O-Wind to face changing winds in urban environments, allowing sustainable energy to be generated in built up city areas.

The spiral wind turbine is both innovative and impressive, but is it really that much better than traditional turbines? Our next post will discuss the pros and cons of traditional alternatives, and the science behind the ‘spinning’ turbine…