Last Friday night three recent graduates of the UNSW Industrial Design Program were lucky enough to be invited to the Australian design community’s night of nights, the Australian International Design Awards. As one of these fortunate graduates, I was lucky enough to be rubbing shoulders with designers of some of the latest and greatest new products designed by Australian companies and design houses.
As a finalist in the Student Design category, sponsored by James Dyson and Dyson Australia, it was a privilege to be involved in the awards and the media coverage that came with it. We have all been featured in articles in the Sydney Morning Herald and on Channel Seven’s Today Tonight and I am confident that this exposure and encouragement will ensure that we all continue our passion for design and innovation.
My product, The Longreach Water Rescue System, was awarded the Silver Medal for the Student Category. Longreach, is a man-portable system that allows for the rapid conveyance of temporary, water-activated buoyancy devices to a drowning victim’s location. It is designed to allow a victim to remain buoyant while rescue personnel prepare the appropriate response to the situation. The rescue package uses hydrophobic or rapidly expanding foam to provide buoyancy once the package contacts the water. This allows the package to be vastly smaller in size than any currently existing buoyancy device. Equipped with a light for attracting attention the Rescue Package can be propelled over 150m. Longreach is also equipped with Para-Flares for night-time Illumination. Longreach is designed to be simple to manufacture and easy to handle. Ideally used by emergency services personnel or a ship’s crew, Longreach has the potential to significantly reduce the number of drownings at sea.
At the awards night, I met a number of my peers from across the country. It was great to see the passion that we shared for design and problem solving and it was great to be able to quiz people about their unique and interesting designs. It was also good to see people who were not familiar with the awards or our designs, coming up to ask questions about their functions, construction and benefits.
I was also approached by a researcher from the ABC TV show, the NEW INVENTORS, who has arranged for Longreach to appear in an upcoming episode of the show. As I work towards getting Longreach ready for production and explore different opportunities for my product, all the media and industry encouragement I have received reaffirms my belief that Longreach has the possibility to greatly benefit the wider community. In the mean time I know that there is a long way to go, but that this big kick-start that I have been given is not to be taken lightly and will not be wasted.
Hopefully you will see Longreach on New Inventors soon, and in production soon after that.
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