Innovative and creative products by BU students were on show at the 2017 BU Design and Engineering Show, attracting visitors from industry and the public.
Among the creations on display by final year Design students were a portable charger for electric vehicles, a tennis ball re-pressuriser and a money-saving cable camera.
Nare Manuelyan spotted a gap in the market for a head and neck support for children after seeing her niece looking uncomfortable on a car journey. Her Comfy Companion was designed to support the child’s head and neck while sitting in a car seat.
She said: “Parents have said that it puts a lot of strain on their neck, especially when children’s heads are a lot bigger for their body size than adults so it causes them to lean down. So the product solution is to really hug the head, get lots of support round the neck and the jawline.”
Daniel Kirkpatrick designed a cable camera system that is both lightweight and affordable, with the idea being that the product will appeal to the amateur market. He said: “An existing system could cost between £12 - 15,000 whereas I’m selling mine for £200. It’s a compact system that an amateur film maker can have to still produce professional footage.”
Daniel’s Hawk Line stand was the winner of the Best Stand award at the exhibition, judged by sponsors Quadrant2Design who presented him with a cheque for £500.
The rise in popularity of electric vehicles prompted Robert Goswell to explore different charging solutions for people who do not live close to a designated charging point. He said: “Currently, users have to use public charge points or home charge points stored at their homes. But for a lot of people, that’s not possible because they don’t have access to off street parking or they don’t have a charge point installed to so they have to rely solely on the public ones.”
His design for the world’s first portable electric vehicle charger – like a phone power bank on a larger scale – is capable of extending a vehicles range by up to 20 miles and has already received interest from Tesla. Robert added: “I spoke to people at the Regent Street Motor Show and unprompted, they came up to me and said they want to buy an electric vehicle but they can’t have one because they don’t have anywhere to charge it. So I thought this is a problem that definitely needs to be solved.”
The three day event was well attended by visitors from industry, fellow students, members of the public and friends and family with a Facebook Live broadcast on Friday 23 June. See our Storify page for futher pictures and social media details from the show here.
Some of the designs featured will be heading to London to exhibit as part of the New Designers Exhibition which takes place at the Business Design Centre from 28 June to 8 July.
See the full range of exhibitors and their designs in the Student Project gallery.
