Two Waterloo Engineering inventions are the only Canadian entries to make the final round of the James Dyson Award to be announced next month.
EyeCheck, an affordable way of diagnosing eye problems, and Suncayr, a
EyeCheck was developed as a systems design engineering Capstone Design project by Ashutosh Syal and Daxal Desai after their professor John Zelek challenged his class to come up with a mobile phone-based solution to assess near-sightedness in third-world countries.
The low-cost alternative for performing eye exams in areas currently underserved by vision services uses a smartphone app, standalone camera and server-side image processing to solve the problem of providing prescriptions for millions of people in developing countries.
Suncayr is the brainchild of fourth-year nanotechnology engineering students Derek Jouppi, Rachel Pautler, Andrew Martinko, Chad Sweeting and Hayden Soboleski. The company’s product is a marker that when drawn on the skin changes colour when sunscreen is no longer working indicating when the user needs to reapply.
Dyson engineers shortlist and praise Waterloo teams
Dyson engineers selected the two Waterloo Engineering teams to make the international shortlist.
Nick Schneider, a Dyson design engineer and one of the judges said, "the EyeCheck team has managed to engineer an affordable way of diagnosing eye problems quickly."
Comparing Suncayr to Dyson, Schneider noted that, "much like the way Dyson engineers approach every day problems, Suncayr is a simple solution for remaining protected in the sun."
Syal of EyeCheck says he and Desai are pleased with the outcome of the competition so far. "We are now more determined than ever to deliver on the promise of vision care for all."
"Knowing that our two teams are the only Canadian ones to make it to the Top 20 shows how our education and co-op experiences have given us the means to be able to build the next game-changing technologies," says Jouppi, co-founder of Suncayr.
Both companies received support through Waterloo's Engineer of the Future Trust and are continuing to develop their products -- EyeCheck through the Velocity Foundry launched this past summer and Suncayr through Velocity Science.
James Dyson will choose the winning invention on November 6. The international winner will receive $45,000 and an additional $15,000 for the winning team’s university.