Joint winner was Chloe Meineck’s musical memory box, to help dementia sufferers
A musical memory box to aid dementia sufferers and an ergonomic cutlery set for children have become joint winners of a competition set up to celebrate National Women In Engineering Day.
The Women With Bright Ideas competition was launched by the Engineering and Innovation Network South West (EIN-SW) with support from SolidWorks reseller NT-CADCAM to celebrate National Women In Engineering Day, with 25 budding entrepreneurs and designers from all over the country entering their ideas.
All the finalists received advice from intellectual property lawyer Jessica Bent from Withy King Solicitors and an inspirational workshop from Joni Farthing, founder of Women Outside The Box. While NT CADCAM is supporting both winners with any CAD design and support that they might need.
Both sets of winners receiving their plaudits at the Women With Bright Ideas competition
Cutlery design winner, Doddl, was the work of two sisters Rosie Phelps and Catherine Dodd. “Winning the Women With Bright Ideas competition is a great launch pad for our Doddl cutlery,” said Phelps. “It’s an exciting new product, which makes eating easier for toddlers with a unique design that helps children grip and control the cutlery more effectively.”
Chloe Meineck’s musical memory box wowed the judges as the University of Brighton graduate explained how she uses music to stimulate memories for dementia sufferers.
Tactile objects are placed in the box and when the object is placed in the centre, using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, it plays a tune from their past that prompts a memory.
Chloe says, “It becomes a talking point for family members on visits that can sometimes be difficult. New objects can be added to make it a very personal and bespoke box.”
Sheena Awdry of Engineering Innovation Network South West said: “The event has been one of the highlights of the Engineering Innovation Network South West project. It exceeded our expectations with the number of attendees and the interest it generated. The feedback has been very positive and we are looking forward to working with the winners and runner ups to get them all to market.”
The assistance these businesses are receiving has been enabled by a £375,000 grant from the European Regional Development Fund.
