Industrial design graduate wins James Dyson national award

The James Dyson Award competition celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers to think differently and create products that work better.

Jack Pugh, who graduated with a Bachelor of Design with Honours in Industrial Design in April this year, entered his design Cap Snap, a medical multi-tool for crimp seal cap removal and ampoule breaking. The design improves safety for healthcare staff and reduces medical waste going to landfill.

Tens of thousands of glass medication vials are disposed of in sharps bins each year in Aotearoa New Zealand hospital wards, requiring autoclaving before landfill, an energy-intensive process. These vials could be recycled, but post-processing barriers exist. Separating aluminium caps from glass vials with makeshift tools can result in hand strain, while opening glass ampoules poses a risk due to sharp edges potentially causing injury.

Cap Snap was Jack’s final-year design project. For the project, he consulted with healthcare professionals from the Wellington Regional Hospital Intensive Care Sustainability Group, who shared their concerns about safety and recycling.

“The motivation for my design was to make life easier for busy healthcare professionals who work with medications each day and are at risk. I wanted my project to develop an outcome of genuine use to them,” he says.

The innovative tool that Jack designed combines medicine bottle opening and ampoule snapping into one easy-to-use design. The intuitive design, with a clear viewport and D-ring for safe pressure, makes it simple and efficient to use, reducing the need for multiple tools. It improves safety for those using the tool and it helps separate each component of the medication vial more easily: the aluminium cap, rubber bung and glass to reduce barriers to improved waste management practices.

Inspired by his research project, after graduating Jack joined the Wellington and Hutt Valley-based Improvement and Innovation team, a part of Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora.

Winning the national leg of the James Dyson Award will inject $10,200 into Jack’s project to support next steps in the development and commercialisation of Cap Snap.

“It is so thrilling to be selected as this year’s National winner, as it’s a formal acknowledgement of the hard work and dedication I’ve put into this project so far. The James Dyson Award is held in high regard for Massey University industrial design students, so this is a huge milestone for me.”

This year’s New Zealand entries were judged by Sayali Pendharkar, Deputy Chief Science

Advisor for the Ministry of Health New Zealand, Peter Griffin, Science and Technology Journalist with more than 20 years’ experience and Craig Douglas, Head of Operations at Dyson, based in Singapore.

Judge Sayali Pendharkar says, "Cap Snap directly addresses a significant health and safety concern prevalent in clinical wards, particularly for health professionals such as nurses. This innovative tool not only enhances efficiency—an increasingly critical need in today’s healthcare environment—but also contributes to sustainability by improving the recyclability of various medical waste components, such as aluminium lids. This could mark a meaningful step forward in reducing waste within the healthcare system."

Cap Snap will progress to the next stage of the James Dyson Award, with the international Top 20 shortlist to be announced on 16 October, selected by Dyson engineers, and the global winners on 13 November, chosen by Sir James Dyson.

Massey has a history of performing well with the James Dyson national award, with 2024 being the 10th consecutive year a Massey student has won the top prize.

One of the runner-up designs was also the brainchild of a Massey student.

Lexie Steele’s Alta is a re-designed medical over-bed table that addresses issues in current hospital tables. Alta re-thinks the hospital table into a highly functional, user-orientated piece of hospital equipment. Eating and drinking is simpler due to the Alta jug design and ability to bring the tray closer to the patient; comfort is improved due to arm rests, wheel covers prevent cables from getting stuck and when not in use, Alta can be folded away.