HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach Newswire - 13 November 2024 - Today, the James Dyson Award unveils its two global winners, each receiving £30,000 for solving significant problems of global importance in medicine and sustainability:

• Athena is the global Medical Winner. Invented by 24-year-old designer Olivia Humphreys (Ireland) after she witnessed her mother's painful battle with cancer, Athena is an affordable – and portable – device for chemotherapy patients that uses scalp cooling to prevent hair-loss. It is ¹⁄₂₀ of the price of existing technology, and can be used outside hospital, reducing the time patients are forced to spend on wards.
• airXeed Radiosonde is the global Sustainability Winner. Invented by postdoctoral researchers Shane Kyi Hla Win and Danial Sufiyan Bin Shaiful (Singapore), airXeed is a reusable, nature-inspired sensor for weather forecasting. Unlike current weather balloons, it does not create tonnes of plastic and electronics waste, and intelligently descends like a maple seed to avoid aircraft collisions and land in designated collection zones.

The international student design competition, which has now supported more than 400 problem-solving inventions from young engineers and scientists worldwide, received nearly 2,000 entries this year. Speaking of the 2024 winners, James Dyson said: "We started the James Dyson Award nearly 20 years ago to encourage students at university to solve problems. And we've had thousands and thousands of entries since. It's wonderfully encouraging to see how many students have solutions to severe global problems. Instead of sitting back and talking about it, they're doing something about it – and that's what the James Dyson Award encourages. We've got two brilliant winners this year which we're thrilled to support, and I hope the Award will give them a springboard to future success." James Dyson surprised Olivia, Shane and Danial with the exciting news during an online video call. Watch how it went down on YouTube.Medical Winner – Athena: A Portable, Affordable, and Patient-Centric Solution to Chemo-Induced Hair Loss. The problem Some 65-99% of patients going through chemotherapy will be affected by chemo-induced hair loss[1]. Current hair-loss prevention techniques commonly use scalp cooling, a method which involves applying ice cold temperatures to the scalp before, during, and after chemotherapy, which can be very painful for patients. It mitigates hair loss by shrinking blood vessels and limiting blood flow to the scalp. After chemotherapy, cooling can also help hair grow back faster and stronger[2]. However, the availability of scalp cooling is limited due to its high costs. This year's Medical Winner is from Ireland where the Minister for Health estimated the total cost of installing a scalp cooling machine at €216,000[3], with additional costs needed for staffing as the treatment requires additional help to operate the equipment. The solution Olivia Humphreys, a 24-year-old product design and technology graduate, invented Athena to tackle these issues after witnessing the impact of chemotherapy-induced hair loss when her mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2019. Having spent time with her mother during treatment, Olivia was inspired to reimagine hair-loss prevention technology. Athena is a portable, thermoelectric hair-loss prevention device that uses scalp cooling. It's more cost effective and timesaving than current hospital models, without compromising on the quality of treatment. With Athena, patients can start and end the scalp-cooling process themselves from wherever they wish, such as the comfort of their own home. At full power, it can run for 3.5 hours, allowing the patient to commute to and from the hospital while cooling, and move around during infusion, such as for bathroom visits. Athena aims to give control back to patients during a time when they usually have little of it. Athena is patient-centric and so Olivia also chose bright colours for the device's materials as a change from conventional, clinical colours found in hospitals. Taking its name from the powerful Greek Goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, for Humphreys, Athena is a symbol of resilience, which is a quality often seen in those living with an illness as serious as cancer and going through the necessary treatments. The estimated cost for Athena would be around €1,000, according to Olivia, which is significantly less than industry machines which start at around €20,000. Athena has the potential to make hair-loss prevention more accessible and affordable for both patients and healthcare providers. James Dyson, Founder of Dyson, said: "I haven't had cancer, but members of my family have had cancer and hair loss is a particularly depressing and debilitating part of chemotherapy treatment. You can freeze your scalp which you have to do in special facilities, but these aren't always available,...