SMARTER SOLUTIONS, REAL-WORLD CHANGE

The 2025 James Dyson Award highlights inventions that advance sustainability and assistive design

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Now on its 20th year, the James Dyson Award continues to champion young inventors who bring fresh thinking to urgent global problems. This year's global winners push the boundaries of environmental monitoring and accessible design, with two student-led inventions that show how innovation can meaningfully improve lives.

WATERSENSE: REINVENTING WATER QUALITY MONITORING

With 43 percent of Philippine rivers classified as polluted, the need for timely and accurate water monitoring has never been greater. Traditional methods rely on manual sampling that is sporadic, labour-intensive, and often unable to catch sudden changes in water health.

WaterSense, the Award’s Sustainability winner, aims to change that. Created by Filip Budny, a nanotechnology PhD candidate from Poland, the device autonomously monitors rivers and lakes in real time using a suite of paper-based sensors. It draws samples from three depths for layered analysis, powered entirely by the natural flow of water through an integrated hydrogenerator.