University of Cape Town (UCT) student Kai Goodall has been named a winner of the international People.Planet.Product Student Design Challenge.
Electrocomponents, a global omni channel provider of product and service solutions, announced the winners of the student-design challenge last week.
The challenge was launched early last year in collaboration with the company’s global social enterprise partner, The Washing Machine Project, a humanitarian initiative dedicated to alleviating the burden of hand washing in low-income and displaced communities, through innovative product design and distribution.
The three winning designs which were selected from six global finalists in first, second and third place were Kai Goodall, Team Scentury and Joseph Baker, respectively. The challenge tasked student members of the DesignSpark engineering community to apply original thinking and practical skills to the ongoing development of The Washing Machine Project’s first water-saving off-grid manual crank-handle washing machine, the Divya. Entries were invited in three different focus areas: People (empower people to use the Divya by improving the technology or implementation of the design); Planet (filtering out greywater or microplastics); Product (encourage better posture through changes in weight, portability, for example).
Goodall, currently a master’s student in Electrical Engineering at UCT, mentioned that it has been moving to see that his sustainable and user-friendly washing machine design was selected as one of the winners of the global contest.
“My UCT supervisor and chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) South Africa, Dr David Oyedokun, inspired me to compete in the RS Components Student Design Challenge and I came out tops with my Pedal n Spin foot-cranked washing machine innovation.
“Being the sole finalist from Africa in the competition and winning first prize was a special recognition of my invention, and motivates me to take my passion to new frontiers, and hopefully inspire more young people to use engineering as a tool for their progression,” he said.
Goodall’s “Pedal n Spin” design is a foot-cranked washing machine that rotates easily using a combination of the principle of a treadle system and pedal system. It is a pedal-powered, connected rod driven, rotating drum washing machine system that is purely mechanical in nature.
It improves the user’s posture, ease of use, and sustainability of the current Divya washing machine, allowing longer-term adoption, improved hygiene, and increased rotation efficiency with a huge mechanical advantage.
All six finalists, including Team Oro (Product), Team Neolithic (Product), and Ketki Dave (Planet) pitched their designs at a live virtual event to a panel of judges from leading industry and humanitarian organisations.
Panel judge Navjot Sawhney, Founder of The Washing Machine Project, commented: “With the Electrocomponents Grassroots team, The Washing Machine Project devised the People.Planet.Product student design challenge to inspire students with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math backgrounds to get involved in our humanitarian initiative.
“These are the scientists, engineers, and mathematicians of tomorrow, and the amazing quality of designs we have seen through this challenge is really heart-warming and proof that the younger generation are fully engaged in playing their part in a sustainable future.”
Goodall has recently joined forces with Forest Creations, a sustainable woodworking company, to create four more improved Pedal n Spin units for donation and field testing in Cape Town townships, with a view towards more sustained manufacturing and distribution.
“I welcome collaboration and financial support in my bid to roll out many more of these units, to provide a healthy and sustainable innovation to those in need,” he concluded.
