10 Positively Inspiring Product Designs Win 2009 IDEA Awards

7. IDEA Gold Award For Medical & Scientific Products: Nanopoint Microfluidics Controller

Credit: Peter Bristol, Stephanie Barnes and the industrial design and engineering teams of Carbon Design Group, and the engineering team of Pathway Medical. 

The same group that developed the Pathway System, above, won another gold for its Nanopoint Microfluidics Controller, a device for researchers that provides life support to cells being studied in an accompanying cellTRAY Fluidics System. The Microfluids Controller regulates temperature, micro-deliveries of nutrients and drugs, and removes the metabolic waste from the bio-incubator.  Wrap your mind around that....

8. IDEA Gold Award For Design Strategy: Human-Centered Design Toolkit

Credit:  Tatyana Mamut, Jessica Hastings, Fidel Calderon, Scott Tong and Sandy Speicher of IDEO.

A Toolkit designed to ultimately assist poor farmers in developing countries to improve their lives, the kit is directed to the non-governmental agencies and social organizers in these countries to support their fieldwork in data analysis, idea generation and prototyping, and implementation planning.  It is available in print and online and is free to these leaders.

9. IDEA Gold Award For Research: Project Cooper

Credit:  Industrial Design

Project Cooper was a vast study of thyroid surgeons throughout the US and Europe to ascertain their needs, preferences, and concepts for improvements in thyroid surgeries. The outcome of this study resulted in the device pictured, a new tool used in delicate surgeries that has demonstrated positive results for surgeons and their patients.

10. IDEA Gold Award For Student Designs: Energy Seed

Credit:  Sungwoo Park of Samsung Design Membership/Kookmin University (South Korea) and Sunhee Kim of Chung-Ang University (South Korea).

There were several IDEA Gold Awards given to student designs.  Energy Seeds should have been on the streets decades ago so we could have deposited our used batteries responsibly. Better late than never though, this brilliantly conceived LED street lamp acts as a repository for old batteries and uses whatever is left in them  to light the lamp and thereby the street.  This flower comes alive at night!

There were hundreds of winning designs at this years IDEA competition.  To see them all visit the IDEA 2009 Design Gallery and select a category.