- [Narrator] This invention could
help save more disaster victims.
2017 was a bad year for the U.S.
It spent an estimated $306 billion dollars
on fixing the damage from natural disasters.
One of the most expensive years on record.
But those toppled homes and flooded streets aren't just
expensive to clean up, they block the way for rescue crews
making it even harder to help disaster
victims in need of medical aid.
Rescue crews can drop supplies from the air
but even those can have rough landings,
breaking fragile medical equipment on impact.
That's where something like this could help.
It's called the Dazzle Box, and it won first place
at this year's 3M Disruptive Design Challenge.
The challenge? Test college engineering students
to build a container that could successfully deliver
needed medical supplies if air dropped
into the midst of a natural disaster.
The guidelines? The device must be resilient,
easy to transport from one point to another,
able to be reused after the drop,
and water resistant.
- So we were supposed to design a container
that would have a parachute but be able
to survive if that parachute failed.
First and foremost it had to survive
a 150 foot drop from the crane.
- [Narrator] Not many projects survived the drop.
Ultimately it was the iconic shape that gave
this team a leg up on the competition.
- So we went through a lot of different shapes.
The shape we settled on for the final container
is called a truncated octahedron.
We chose that one specifically because it's
still sort of round, it has that sort of profile
but it also is really easy to transport
because it can stack perfectly with itself in space.
So it makes it very efficient to transport as well.
- [Narrator] The device was made of individual polycarbonate
panels that the team taped together and lined with foam.
This not only made the device more resistant on impact
but it also made it extremely versatile.
- One of the major design decisions that we made
and the tape helped this decision also is that all
the polycarbonate panels and all the pieces
are completely modular so you can just cut one
out if it's broken and replace it with a new one.
Put down new tape and then the container
would be ready to drop again after that.
We also had a lot of foam that helped to absorb the impact
and that was used, you know you could make beddings,
you could make cushions, pillows, really anything
that you need to use it for, it could be cut up
and made into sponges if you needed it.
- [Narrator] Last but not least was the colorful design.
- Yeah so that was inspired by this thing called
Dazzle Camouflage, there was a marine artist named
Norman Wilkinson who developed it actually for the Royal,
the British Royal Navy to be put on the side of their ships
so that it would be harder for enemy ships to see
the ship's heading because the sort of sharp geometric
pattern broke up where that ship was heading.
And it sort of also has the secondary effect of making
anything stand out in any natural environment.
It's a very like unnatural pattern so we wanted to use
that aspect just so our container, if it fell into
the jungle where there may be like heavy underbrush
or different things, it would really, really
stand out against that natural environment.
- [Narrator] They also added LED emergency
lights on each face of the container
so it could be equally visible at night.
In total, the team spent about $600 building the device.
But it paid off in the end.
- So each member of our team is gonna get a $1500 cash
prize which is awesome and then I think we also just
get some bragging rights 'cause we're the inaugural
winners of the 3M Disruptive Design Competition.
- [Narrator] And while the team has no plans
to pursue the project beyond this point.
- All of us did the challenge as an extra-curricular
activity but I think we would be open
to any opportunities that pop up.
(soft gentle music)