Méadú named this year’s winner of James Dyson Award

A device that creates interactive maths lessons for primary school children has been named the winner of the Irish James Dyson Award.

Méadú is an interactive multiplication table that helps children learn up to their 12 times tables, helping to curb maths anxiety among children. Designed by Paul Hendrick, a Wicklow-born product design graduate from Technological University Dublin, the device is designed to fill the gap in physical maths resources for older primary school groups.

It has a 12 by 12 grid showing the multiplications tables from one to 12, with two sliders and a whiteboard on the underside of the central board for use during maths lessons for general rough work. The device went through 10 prototypes before reaching its design.

“Children who struggle with maths in primary school can begin to put up a barrier to understanding the topic, impacting their future career opportunities,” said Mr Hendrick. “Méadú exists to promote more hands-on and engaging maths lessons for students in primary schools; I look forward to further tailoring the product to align with teachers’ and students’ needs.”

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Mr Hendrick will now advance to the international competition where Méadú will compete with winners from 28 other national rounds for a prize of up to €33,000. As winner of the national round of the competition, he also receives €5,800 to help further develop his project and improve the device.

The two runners-up in this year’s national leg of the James Dyson Award were Proteus Controller, a Lego-like kit of components that gamers can assemble in configurations to suit their needs, and Flare, a wearable aimed at helping women going through menopause, using Peltier cooling and airflow to help them deal with hot flushes.

This is the 17th year of the James Dyson Award. The competition, which is open to students and graduates who have been enrolled for at least one semester in an undergraduate or graduate engineering or design-related course in the past four years, tasks entrants with designing something that solves a problem, whether it is a frustration of daily life or a global issue.