SmartHEAL, a smart dressing by graduates and now PhD students of the Warsaw University of Technology, has won the James Dyson Award. The solution is designed to help heal chronic wounds. The authors of the project will receive PLN 162,000 for its further development

SmartHEAL is a smart pH sensor integrated into a wound dressing. By monitoring the pH values, it is possible to assess the condition of the wound and detect infection without removing the dressing and therefore without disturbing the tissue. The creators of the solution: Tomasz Raczyński, Piotr Walter and Dominik Baraniecki have been graduates of the mechatronics department at the Warsaw University of Technology and are currently doctoral students at the university. They have already constructed the sensor and confirmed its operation in laboratory conditions and developed a technology for integrating printed electronics into textiles.

The winning solution was chosen by James Dyson himself – a British billionaire, industrial equipment designer and inventor. Dyson looks for ideas that solve practical problems in everyday life.

“We still have a long way to go. Winning the competition will allow us to start key research. After that, we are planning to raise additional funding to help us guide the project through the most difficult stages of development for all biomedical devices”, announces Tomasz Raczynski.

The team working on SmartHEAL consists of experts in the fields of electronics, nanotechnology, biomedical engineering. The inventors emphasise that the development of the idea and its implementation is a huge challenge, as it requires both biocompatibility tests and clinical trials.

In Poland, the Dyson Prize competition was held for the second time. Last year, the winner in the national stage was XTRUDE ZERO, a machine that disinfects and recycles used 3-layer surgical masks, by Mike Ryan from the University of Edinburgh and Aleksander Trakul from the Warsaw University of Technology.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński