"We wanted to tell a story that has not been told anywhere before"… Behind the James Dyson International Award Winning Team 'The Golden Capsule'

The James Dyson Award is an international competition aimed at inspiring and encouraging the next generation of engineers to continue their research and development.  The competition is open to students who are currently studying or to those who have recently graduated from an engineering or industrial design-related program.

The first ever team from Korea was chosen as the winner of the 2023 James Dyson Award. The team consisted of Hongik University students Chae Yoojin, Shin Younghwan, Baek Won, and Kim Daeyeon. The team “The Golden Capsule”, also the name of their winning entry, said that they wanted to talk more about the behind story for the first time. We caught up with the four students to hear their stories about the award.

The team behind 'The Golden Capsule' consisted of two designers and two engineers, all students completing a double major in design engineering. 'The Golden Capsule' is a work that was created as a graduation project for the design engineering majors.  Chae Yoojin (Industrial Design 19), the designated team leader and project manager, was involved in the overall process of product design, contributing to the solution proposal, experimentation, and data collection. Shin Younghwan (Mechanical&System Design Engineering 18) was mainly responsible for the making of experimental models, while also conducting and recording experiments. Baek Won ((Industrial Design 19), was mainly involved in the product’s outer design and experimentation process. Baek Won is an international student from Sichuan, China, who shared that his experience of the Sichuan earthquake in elementary school helped him in the product development process.

As the engineer behind The Golden Capsule, Kim Daeyeon (Mechanical&System Design Engineering 16) was responsible for identifying and establishing engineering principles for the project. Based on his engineering knowledge, he planned experiments, communicated with the designers in the team, and created the prototypes. 

"The Golden Capsule" is an exceptional work, fusing design and engineering. Designers of the winning team were involved in the creation, design, and experimentation of the work, while the Engineers came up with the design ideas.  Student Chae Yoojin gave a specific example of how the designers and engineers collaborated.  The team used a scale to measure the amount of water coming out of the balloon, and with the help of Professor Kim Jiho from the Department of Mechanical Systems and Design Engineering, the engineering team developed a Matlab code that automatically converts scale numbers into Excel data.  However, the input image going into the Matlab was not clear enough for the Matlab to recognize the numbers.  To overcome this problem, the Design Team implemented After Effects and used image processing to refine the images for the Matlab.  As a result, the Golden Capsule team were able to establish a process to quickly and efficiently refine thousands of pages of numerical data and this in return allowed them to create accurate experimental graphs.

Up to their submission for the James Dyson Award, the team received a lot of help from their advisors, Professor Lim Dukshin and Professor Kim Jeeho of the Department of Mechanical Systems Design Engineering. According to Chae Yoojin, Professor Lim Deokshin provided high-level design process guidance, and in relation to solution process, conducted various sessions during class to help the team come up with the best ideas.  The class lesson environment was also free and innovative rather than following a set pace.  Chae Yoojin also explained that Professor Kim taught the team how to present their experiment results with credibility.  She stated that if 'The Golden Capsule' had only been a concept, no one would have believed in it, but with Professor Kim Jiho's help, the team was able to come up with a more credible product.

The Golden Capsule team also shared some deeper stories (engaged in some deeper discussions) about the product. They are confident and able to answer any questions about their product.  When asked how The Golden Capsule, which looks similar, differs from a patient self-administered painless needle injection, student Chae Yoojin said that 'The Golden Capsule' has an element of negative pressure, while painless injections do not.  Medical staff acknowledged that the Golden Capsule looks similar in form to the painless injection, but said that due to the product’s basic principles, it can be recognised as a fundamentally different product.  According to Chae Youjin, painless needle injections cannot be injected quickly because the speed is not adjustable, but 'The Golden Capsule' can achieve a speed up to 1.5 times faster than that of the existing traditional syringe IV drip method without additional manpower or electricity required.  This reflects its appropriateness for use in emergency situations, where a wide range of emergency fluid speed settings are required for patients with injuries ranging from mild to severe.

The Golden Capsule team appear to have given a lot of thought and consideration to the safety and practicality of their product before proceeding with its production. When asked if the balloon inside the product could pose a chemical risk to humans, The Golden Capsule team explained that the component is a medical elastic rather than a balloon, and that they are considering a material called LSR (Liquid Silicone Rubber), which is used in actual medical products and baby bottles.  In addition, they also said that they are considering coating the inside of the elastic with a special material if there are problems with contact between the elastic and medicines during subsequent testing phases.  When asked about the feasibility of using 'The Golden Capsule', a product that uses barometric air pressure differences, at very high altitudes, Student Chae Yujin said that considering the product can already achieve speeds up to 1.5 times faster than traditional intravenous drip method syringes on the ground, at high altitudes it would be reasonable to expect a similar performance to that of existing IV syringe performance on the ground. They also mentioned that even if there is a significant speed difference, a speed visualisation device has been added to the new prototype, so that medical staff can in reality intuitively understand the speed at which fluids are being administered.  The Golden Capsule team is preparing more advanced experiments to understand the effects related to altitude differences, temperature, humidity, and other physical quantities.

The team was asked about what the differences were between the old prototype submitted to the Dyson competition and the new prototype refined after the Dyson competition, and what further improvements were made to the product after receiving the award. In response to this, student Chae Yoojin said that the product was improved to consider the psychological stability of patients and the ease of use for medical staff.  The Golden Capsule team consulted with six emergency rescue specialists, showing them the initial prototype and asking them about usability from a medical perspective. As a result of consultation, the team added a speed visualization device to replace the role of the conventional drip tube for fluids, making it easier to monitor the infusion status. In addition, due to the slow decrease in size of the original balloon, it is difficult for staff to quickly recognize the infusion volume at a glance, therefore the team added dual-directional scale graphics on the exterior shell. Furthermore, the Golden Capsule team observed the posture that medical staff take when actually administering fluids, then adjusted the position of the roller on the product to make it easier for staff to handle effectively.  In addition to mentioning these various changes, Chae Yujin said that, "Even with these improvements, our current prototype is only the second version. Like the works of Lord Dyson, without fear of failure we believe our product still awaits hundreds or thousands of trials and errors."  This evidently reflects the Golden Capsule team's firm determination to continue growing through trials and errors in the future.

At the end of the interview, Chae Yoojin and Shin Younghwan were asked to give a word of advice to Hongik University students who aspire to follow in their footsteps and win a global competition.  Here is what they said: 

Chae Yoojin:  First, develop a sense of enquiry and curiosity.  I think asking questions like 'why does it look like this?' and 'why do we do it this way?' about everything in the world is the quality of a pioneer.  Second, don't be afraid to ask questions. If you ask questions with courtesy and sincerity, you may receive more heartfelt responses than you think.  Third, expand the scale of your thoughts.  What you can achieve seems to depend more on the scale you aim for rather than your own capabilities. I encourage you to aim for something bigger than you are aiming for now, even if it seems a little out of reach.

Shin Younghwan:  Always think about the reason. There are no coincidences in the world, there are reasons. When creating something new, it's important to always think about those reasons.  Also, you need to stay focused. When working on projects, you're going to have moments where you feel discouraged about the goals that you initially set.  I hope you always remember your initial goals and resolutions, and strive to be a person who does their best until the end. 

Design Engineering convergence major Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hongik_designeer/

Design Engineering convergence major You Tube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU-YbrscSVgAOwAcumG6gdQ/featured

Design Engineering convergence major Kakao talk open chat room

https://open.kakao.com/o/goDBMm8c 

Emerging Technology Integrated design education program (undergraduate)

https://design.hongik.ac.kr/

Design Engineering convergence major school homepage  https://smpd.hongik.ac.kr/

Emerging Technology Integrated design education program (International Design Graduate School (IDAS))

Online Communications Reporter Choi Gaeun