Recyclable helmet wins James Dyson Award

The EcoHelmet was this morning announced as the international winner of the James Dyson Awards 2016.

Since 2002, the James Dyson Award has been open to university-level students (or recent graduates) across the world studying product design, industrial design and engineering, with pioneering designs that seek to solve problems. After 963 entries across 22 countries, the judging panel whittled the entries down.

This year the international winner chosen by James Dyson is EcoHelmet – a foldable, recyclable helmet for bike share users. EcoHelmet uses a unique honeycomb configuration to protect the head from impact and folds flat when not in use.

The cell structure of the EcoHelmet equally distributes impact evenly around the head as effectively as a traditional polystyrene helmet. Designer Isis Shiffer, studying at the Pratt Institute of Design in the US will receive £30,000 to further develop her design with a view to getting it into full production.

"Unlike polystyrene helmets, it’s 100 per cent recyclable and fits into nearly any bag. As a passionate cyclist and a habitual helmet wearer, it occurred to me that using bike share programmes in cities had no affordable, easily accessible helmets available,” commented Shiffer.

The two runners-up for this year’s award are Respia in Australia, who created an asthma management system that tracks and records the user’s respiratory health and medication use and a Smart Contact Lens in Canada. The lens has a sensor that can continuously monitor glucose levels in diabetics. Both will receive £5,000 towards the development of their designs.