The author of the device for home diagnosis of breast cancer received a prestigious award

Irina Ziganshina

iNews report about this year's winners.

In 2020, the main prize went to 23-year-old Judith Giraud Benet of the University of Terragona, who presented a gadget that detects breast cancer at home. Now, most cases of the disease are detected during mammography or ultrasound of the breast, and often these are already advanced cases. The Blue Box allows early detection of disease with a painless, non-invasive method that does not require a visit to the doctor. Blue Box performs urinalysis and sends the results to the cloud, where an artificial intelligence algorithm reacts to specific metabolites that could indicate cancer. The diagnosis is then transferred to an app on the user's smartphone.

Benet claims that thanks to its powerful detection algorithm, the device is able to detect 95% of cancerous cases. Blue Box for the researcher is in many ways a personal story: her development was pushed by breast cancer, which was diagnosed in her own mother. The researcher intends to spend a prize fund of £ 30,000 on device improvements, patent filing and clinical trials. All this, in her opinion, should give every woman in the world a chance to prevent the fatal late stage of breast cancer.

Also the first prize was awarded to 27-year-old Carvi Eren Meigu, a student at Mapua University in the Philippines, for the AuREUS System Technology project, which allows converting ultraviolet light into renewable energy. The system works on the basis of material obtained from agricultural waste (in other words, rotten fruits and vegetables).

Panels are made from waste that can be attached to windows and walls of houses. The material absorbs the scattered ultraviolet light from the sun and converts it into energy. Unlike solar panels, this system is effective even when not facing directly into the sun, as the material can trap ultraviolet radiation through clouds and catch its reflections off walls, sidewalks, and other buildings.