Northland's Dyson Award-winning student Maisie Panoho is a judge in this year's competition

Northland's Maisie Panoho, who won last year's James Dyson Award for her new asthma inhaler, is a judge for this year's awards.

A year after winning the 2021 James Dyson Award for an innovative asthma inhaler, Northland university student Maisie Panoho is a judge in this year's awards.

The James Dyson Award is an annual student design competition run by Dyson's charity, and is open again for entries his year.

Last year's competition was won by Panoho, from Waipū, for Hae Hae, a new inhaler for children.

As part of her industrial design studies at Massey University in Wellington, Panoho took a closer look at conventional inhalers and trialled ideas before settling on her unique design.

"I developed the inhaler to be ergonomically better for children's hands. That was based on my project research," Panoho said.

She looked at how children's toys were designed and discovered they are often round and have a "bobble look", as Panoho described it.

"That is why I decided to keep the bottom round."

Also, the material she used, silicon, is meant to provide a better grip for kids. The so-called trigger wings on either side of the bottom bulb make it easier to trigger the device compared with a commonly used inhaler.

The device will also display information such as the battery life, how much medicine is available, when and how long to shake the inhaler, and a reward system for taking medicine.

Panoho started her design development with a cardboard-and-polystyrene model and eventually digitalised it with CAD (computer-aided design), which allowed further alterations.

The award organisers were so impressed with Panoho that they invited her back to be a judge in this year's competition.

Since 2005, the James Dyson Award has challenged inventive and entrepreneurial undergraduates and recent graduates of engineering and design, to 'design something that solves a problem'. Purposely broad and open-ended, the brief challenges students to solve real-world problems.

In 2022, each participating country and region will award a national winner who will receive $9,800, as well as two national runners-up. This year there will also be two $59,000 global prizes: the International winner and the Sustainability winner.

New Zealand entries in 2022 will be judged by a talented line-up of experienced industry figures, including the founder of Emma Lewisham Skincare, Emma Lewisham, the founder and creative director of Kowtow, Gosia Piatek, senior lecturer at the University of Auckland's Department of Paediatrics, Dr Yvonne Anderson, and Panoho.

Head to www.jamesdysonaward.org to find out more.