Three students from The Glasgow School of Art’s Product Design Engineering course; Isabel Payne, Jake Lee and Jem Mitchell, have swept the top three positions in this year’s Design Innovation in Plastics (DIP) competition. All three winners collect cash prizes and industry placements as part of their award.
This year’s contestants were asked to design an off-grid product for independent living, aimed at either leisure or household markets, and to be made primarily of plastics. The panel of industry judges admitted to being blown away by the quality of the designs produced by this year’s finalists in what had been a very challenging brief.
Isabel Payne’s winning product SafiCase is a solar powered compact case for cleaning and steam sterilising re-usable menstrual cups using minimal water. SafiCase is entirely self-powered, using a solar battery for the sterilising circuit, and is targeted at women who want something to use when they are nowhere near an electricity source, or any running water. It is collapsable so can be carried easily. Isobel wins £1,000, a placement with a DIP sponsor, a year’s membership to the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), and an invitation to the Lord Mayor’s annual banquet as a guest of the Worshipful Company of Horners.
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| Winner Isobel Payne with her SafiCase product |
“It means such a lot to have a platform for dealing with the issue of period poverty, which is rarely spoken about, despite affecting so many people worldwide and around 40 per cent of women in the UK. I hope this design helps bring awareness for reusable options, and helps other people decide to invest time in designing more solutions, as there is very little innovation in this area.” Isobel Payne, first prize winner.
“Students from the MEng4 in Product Design Engineering have entered the ‘Design Innovation in Plastics’ competition on three previous occasions, winning on two occasions.” says Hugh Pizey, Tutor MEng4 Product Design Engineering
“The theme this year – ’Off-Grid Products’, was of particular interest to this years students, who are keen to work on sustainability projects. Gaining a clean sweep of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the competition is testament to the skill, creativity and hard-work shown by the students. All the winning projects combined a mix of technology and human factors, with our students doing a great job of communicating them verbally, in posters and with 3D prototypes. A fantastic achievement for PDE”
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| 2nd place Jake Lee for SkinTemp |
The judges awarded second place to Jake Lee for his product SkinTemp, a cold water temperature sensor that alerts users to dangerous drops in body temperature. It is powered using the temperature difference between the user’s skin and the cold water using what is known as the Peltier effect. Jake wins £750, a placement with a DIP sponsor and a year’s membership of The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
In third place was Jem Mitchell who produced Sentree, a solar powered sonic deterrent that protects trees from being overgrazed by animals such as deer. The product uses foil sensing interfaces, which interpret and respond when an animal tries to eat its bark or leaves. It then emits a sonic deterrent. Jem wins £500, a placement with a DIP sponsor and also receives a year’s membership of The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
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| 3rd place Jem Mitchell for Sentree |
Chairman of judges, Richard Brown, said: “Isabel’s product uniquely addresses the off-grid challenge, and meets a very clear social need, not just for the traveller but also, for example, displaced people living in refugee camps. It was very well researched and is a very worthy winner with a product idea which could be commercialised.
“Jake Lee’s product uses thermo-electric generators to produce energy to generate a signal, calculating thermal energy transfer from the skin and provide haptic feedback. He did physical testing and had feedback from swimmers to provide focus. With further development this product could be a good safety solution for cold water swimmers.
“The research behind Jem Mitchell’s product was well presented and demonstrated with a fully functioning model. It addresses a real problem and the research was well explored and succinctly explained. There could also be other applications for this product.”
The Glasgow School of Art’s Product Design Engineering course provided three of the six shortlisted finalists for this year’s Design Innovation in Plastics competition.
The full details of this years Design Innovation in Plastics awards can be viewed HERE
for further information contact press@gsa.ac.uk
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Notes to editors
About Design Innovation in Plastics:
Design Innovation in Plastics
Established in 1985, Design Innovation In Plastics (DIP) is now the longest running student plastics design award in Europe. Students submit their entries digitally and finalists are invited to present their concepts to a panel of judges with presentation slides and models. All finalists win a cash prize, a short placement with a UK design company, and connections to esteemed members of the community. We encourage tutors and lecturers to incorporate our brief into their university’s coursework to facilitate student submissions.
Design Innovation in Plastics is sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Horners, The Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3), and market leaders in the fields of design and innovation including world-leading polymers company Covestro.
About The Glasgow School of Art (GSA):
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is internationally recognised as one of Europe’s leading independent university-level institutions for education and research in the visual creative disciplines. Our studio-based, specialist, practice-led teaching, learning and research draw talented individuals with a shared passion for visual culture and creative production from all over the world.
Originally founded in 1845 as one of the first Government Schools of Design, the School’s history can be traced back to 1753 and the establishment of the Foulis Academy delivering a European-style art education. Today, the GSA is an international community of over 3500 students and staff across architecture, design, digital, fine art and innovation in our campuses in Glasgow and Altyre (in the Scottish Highlands) and a thriving Open Studio programme delivering non-degree provision to over 1500 students annually.