Inside the judging room with Lucy Hughes

My invention

I entered the James Dyson Award in 2019 with my invention MarinaTex, a new type of sustainable packaging made from fish waste and red algae, designed as an alternative to some single use plastic films. This was my final year project at the University of Sussex, inspired by my core beliefs of fighting plastic pollution and protecting the oceans. I felt my entry really met the brief to design something that solves a real-world problem. Although I believed in my invention, I have to say I really did not expect to win the award, let alone the International Award! I was an undergraduate at the time and it felt like a lot of other entries were Master’s students or in teams, so I felt like the odds were stacked against me. It really proves that it’s worth going for it, as you never know!

Winning the James Dyson Award

I found out that I was the National Winner and then I found out that I was the International Winner...definitely a memorable day! Luckily the James Dyson Award have a network of past winners for support, who they put me in touch with, this network was really invaluable, and it was great to share the excitement with previous award winners who knew exactly how I was feeling.Winning the award was a real honour, the James Dyson Award is definitely one of the pinnacles of design awards and as Student design awards go, I can’t think of anything else comparable.

Becoming a judge

A couple of months ago, I was approached to be on the UK judging panel for this year’s award. I was honoured to be asked, particularly as this year has such a focus on sustainability, something I am clearly very passionate about.  The other judges, Sophie Thomas (Circular Economy Specialist), Stuart Miles (CEO and Founder of Pocket Lint), and I completed our judging virtually which worked surprisingly well. We were able to study the entries in detail and had some healthy debates, but after a full day of deliberating, we’d unanimously decided on a winner!
The level of work was incredibly high, and it just emphasised how tough it must have been for the judges looking at my entry last year!

What’s next

Having completed the judging, I can really relate to how the UK winner will feel. A sense of anticipation for what’s to come and immense pride in their entry. I have already started to picture what this year’s National Winner can do with the money from the award, and I’m so excited for the future of the entry! I’m also looking forward to the future of the James Dyson Award as a whole, engineers really have their ear to the ground on current problems and are very quick to act to solve them.