The Triumph Design Awards is a national engineering competition organised by motorcycle giant, Triumph Motorcycles Ltd to inspire design engineers of the future. Sanjay was awarded first place for designing a fall detection and alert system aimed at the care sector.
The competition was open to sixth form and college Design & Technology students, aiming to encourage creative thinking and innovative problem solving as well as to develop their ability to produce feasible solutions to real world challenges. Entrants are given a range of design briefs that identify various challenges to explore and solve with an original design. After the initial stages of the competition, 25 finalists were invited to present their entries to a judging panel.
Sanjay’s entry was inspired by a visit to a local care home under development. The 18 year old sixth form student, from Mapperley, realised that there are very few safeguards in place to ensure a quick response from staff should a resident fall, especially in the middle of the night when visiting the bathroom alone. Sanjay developed a fall detecting floor that looks at the surface distribution patterns on the floor, analyses them and sends the data to a separate panel, where an alert can be triggered.
“I am delighted to have won the competition,” said Sanjay. “The system that I have developed tries to maintain the dignity of care home residents for as long as reasonably possible by enabling them to safely pursue going to the bathroom alone without the need for dedicated assistance or devices that may cause discomfort or anxiety. I believe that the product I have developed is marketable not only to the care sector but other sectors too and have applied for a patent for it.”
His prize for winning the competition is a two-week paid design internship at Triumph Motorcycles Ltd, the opportunity to undertake a sponsored degree on a related course alongside periods of paid work at Triumph, a Triumph factory tour and £500.
Fellow Nottingham High School student, 17 year old David Steele from near Matlock, also made it through to the national finals of the competition.
Head of Design Technology at Nottingham High School, Paul Gray said; “I am delighted for Sanjay. He had an excellent concept and has worked really hard to tailor it to the needs of the elderly and vulnerable. Sanjay has also brought some high end engineering skills to bear on developing his project and it looks as though there is considerable interest from industry in putting it into production.”
