Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you
Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you

James Dyson Award entries open, can you solve a problem?

Have you ever wondered if there’s a problem you could solve, helping people on a global scale? If you’re in uni, you might just be able to do that and win.

It might seem like the world’s problems are often already solved by the time you get to them, but the reality is that there’s always something that needs fresh eyes and a solution that hasn’t been thought of.

It’s one of the reasons why the world needs bright minds and people thinking out of the box, and for these people to put these skills to good use, creating solutions to situations no one else in the world has thought of.

Those great ideas that you rely on from day to day, they were created by scientists, engineers, and inventors that had an idea to look at a problem and interpret the information differently, creating a solution only they could see.

Inventors aren’t often pushed on at school, but people who solve problems are always appreciated, and companies look for them.

The maker of modern day fans and vacuums (among other things) even runs an international competition to look for inventors, and this year, it’s in its 15th year.

It is the James Dyson Award, an international run competition that looks for ideas that solve real world problems. The James Dyson Award stretches across 27 countries for the company, and entries are shortlisted locally before being judged by James Dyson himself, with the requirement for entrants being that they haves to be studying at university or recently graduated.

Macaron, the 2018 Australian James Dyson Award winner
Macaron, the 2018 Australian James Dyson Award winner

Last year, the international winners came from Chile and Kenya with a smart power technology called the “O-Wind Turbine” which could change city power, while Australia’s James Dyson Award for 2018 was a smart measuring tape that records distance and helps the visually impaired.

If you’re thinking of entering, you’ll need the idea, the development process, and how it works, as well as some imagery, such as sketches, prototypes, and possibly some computer imagery. That narrows the field somewhat, and isn’t just for people with an idea and no effort; rather, it means that if you genuinely have an idea and what to solve it, you need to be able to show it.

Do that and you might just win, and not just for yourself, but for the country as well.

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