Olivia Humphreys, a graduate from the University of Limerick, has been crowned the global winner of the prestigious 2024 James Dyson Award in the “Medical Devices” category. Her invention, “Athena,” is a mobile scalp-cooling device designed specifically to help chemo patients prevent hair loss, addressing a common and challenging side effect of cancer treatment. Olivia’s breakthrough has earned her €38,000 and the honour of being the first Irish global winner since the competition’s inception in 2006.
About ‘Athena’ – James Dyson Global Award Winner 2024
Current scalp cooling products use refrigeration technology requiring constant plugged in power. The patient must arrive at hospital 30 minutes early and stay for 90 minutes after infusion for pre and post scalp cooling. Battery powered Athena, weighing around 3kg, consists of a carry case and a cooling headpiece, that fits to different head shapes, and enables people to spend less time in hospital on a chemotherapy infusion day. It works by using low-cost thermoelectric semiconductors called Peltiers, and these cool a tank of water, which circulates the cold water around the head with the smartly designed headpiece.
With Athena, patients can start and end the scalp-cooling process themselves from wherever they wish, such as the comfort of their own home. At full power, it can run for 3.5 hours, allowing the patient to commute to and from the hospital while cooling, and move around during infusion, such as for bathroom visits. Athena aims to give control back to patients during a time when they usually have little of it. Athena is patient-centric and so Olivia also chose bright colours for the device’s materials as a change from conventional, clinical colours found in hospitals. Taking its name from the powerful Greek Goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, for Humphreys, Athena is a symbol of resilience, which is a quality often seen in those living with an illness as serious as cancer and going through the necessary treatments.
The estimated cost for Athena would be around €1,000, according to Olivia, which is significantly less than industry machines which start at around €20,000. Athena has the potential to make hair-loss prevention more accessible and affordable for both patients and healthcare providers – Olivia’s ideal scenario would involve partnering with hospitals and charities to offer Athena through a rental or loan scheme. To take Athena to the next level, extensive research and development is required, and the James Dyson Award prize money will kickstart this. Long term, Olivia is exploring novel technologies for future hair loss prevention methods beyond scalp cooling.
The James Dyson Award, known for celebrating young innovators around the world, also honoured the AirXeed Radiosonde in the “Sustainability” category. Developed in Singapore, AirXeed is a reusable, nature-inspired weather sensor that addresses the problem of plastic and electronic waste from traditional weather balloons. Designed to intelligently descend like a maple seed, the AirXeed Radiosonde avoids aircraft collision risks while landing in specific collection zones for reuse.
