With climate-related natural disasters and global public health threats predicted to increase in the coming years, figuring out how to improve relief efforts has become an urgent issue for engineers. That was the theme of the inaugural 3M Disruptive Design Challenge, which sought to expose undergraduates to the many design benefits of industrial adhesives.

The 2018 contest, inspired by and created in consultation with humanitarian-aid organization Direct Relief, drew student teams from four universities—Iowa State, the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and North Dakota State University (NDSU). Their task: Design and build a water-resistant, reusable emergency relief delivery container utilizing 3M Industrial Adhesives and Tapes as an alternative to traditional mechanical fasteners that could survive and airdrop and was easy to transport from one point to another.

NDSU team of mechanical engineering majors won first place – and $1,500 – for Dazzle Box. Constructed with the aim of creating an easy manufacturing process for replacements and building during emergencies, the container consisted of a sturdy shell of taped-together polycarbonate panels, permitting easy repair or replacement if one or two sustained damage. Its internal layer of protective foam could be removed and re-used to construct sleeping mats, pillows, and cushions in an emergency, the Society of Mechanical Engineers reported. The container also had straps, allowing it to convert into a backpack and easily transported.

Photo credit: Ali Amiri, Associate Professor of Practice, Mechanical Engineering, NDSU

“We went through a lot of different shapes,” NDSU team leader Jonathan Carlson, a junior in the mechanical engineering program, told Business Insider. The team ultimately settled on a “truncated octahedron” because it’s still round but also “really easy to transport because it can stack perfectly with itself in space,” making it “very efficient to transport as well.”

As for the container’s colorful exterior, it was inspired by the “dazzle camouflage” that marine artist Norman Wilkinson developed for the British Royal Navy to be put on the side of their ships, Carlson told Business Insider. The sharp, geometrical patterns were designed to make it harder for enemy ships to see which way the British ships were heading. “It sort of also has this secondary effect of making anything stand out in any natural environment because it’s a very unnatural pattern,” said Carlson. “So we wanted to use that aspect just so our container, if it fell in the jungle, where there may be like heavy underbrush or different things, it would really, really stand out against that natural environment.”

The team also added LED emergency lights on each face of the container to make it equally visible at night. Total construction costs: $600.

“Getting the chance to research an open-ended project was exciting and we generated our own design to see what we could come up with to solve a problem,” Carlson was quoted in the SME report about the 3M contest. “This challenge is important because it gives us a chance to use all the knowledge we are learning in school and apply it to something in the real-world and solve an actual problem.”

Filed under: Special Features

Tags: 3M, Dazzle Box, Disaster relief, Disruptive Design Challenge, North Dakota State University