The winners of the Helen Hamlyn Design Awards, organised by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD) at the Royal College of Art, have been announced. The awards focus on celebrating the most visionary, inclusive and innovative projects of RCA graduates. This year’s winners propose innovative and transformative solutions to improve people’s lives by solving sustainability and health problems. Three awards were given this year: the Helen Hamlyn Prize for creativity, the Northumbrian Water for inclusive innovation and the Snowdon for disability.
Alexander Spencer, Hanju Seo, Maria Asif and Sven Winkler Von Stiernhielm (all Design and Innovation Engineering graduates) received the Helen Hamlyn Prize for creativity. Their project ‘Pera’, a smart healthcare device for people suffering from bowel incontinence, consists of a wearable device that monitors bowel activity and provides people with predictive information through the Pera’s paired app. The technology is able to predict the passage of faeces 40 minutes in advance, offering an alternative to using hygienic products that can cause infections and skin breakdown.
Sven Winkler Von Stiernhielm (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering) received the Northumbrian Water Award for Inclusive Innovation for his project ‘Ziwa Vision’, a device that promotes prosperous and ecologically responsible food production in developing countries. Ziwa Vision introduces a way to feed farmed fish in a more sustainable way by improving the evaluation of fish behaviour through real-time machine learning analysis. The physical device is attached to the frames used by tilapia farmers around the world and alerts staff to stop feeding at the optimal time with a loudspeaker sound.
Yiming Pang (MA Fashion) and Jialu Hou (MA Design Products) received the Snowdon Award for Disability for their project ‘Branches’, a multifunctional coat hanger designed for one-armed people to improve their independence in daily activities such as dressing and dressing up. Inspired by the natural shape of tree branches, it integrates practical functions such as quick shoe tying, convenient cuff buttoning, one-handed tie tying and dressing/undressing aids. Made of light and durable ecological materials, Branches is aesthetically pleasing and ergonomic.
