Insulin vials necessitate storing at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, beyond which the drug loses efficacy. And naturally, this prompted Indians to come up with some jugaad (also known as ‘innovative hacks’ in local parlance). A few of them were Odisha native Komal Panda’s closest friends.
Currently, a fourth-year student at the National Institute of Design, Haryana, Komal (22) recently made headlines when she was announced the national winner of the prestigious James Dyson Award 2024.
Applauding the ingenious tricks her friends devised to prolong the longevity of the insulin while travelling, she shares, “One of them stores the vial in a thermos flask, while the other, who lives down South and makes 27-hour-long train trips back home, purchases a chilled bottle of water at every station in which she then places the vial.” Think of it like a mini-fridge.
Clever as these innovations are, it baffled Komal how no one was finding the process cumbersome. “There had to be a simpler solution”, she caught herself thinking this during one ‘Technically Complex Project’ lecture in her second year.
For Komal, this need to ideate stemmed from personal sentiment. “I’ve watched my father struggle with diabetes since I was little. He would rush home every afternoon from his job in a steel factory, just so he could take his insulin shot. The factory does not have a refrigerator and ice packs prove impractical.”
At the time Komal was unable to put her finger on a mental blueprint. But she was keen that the premise of the design be something people would ‘want’ to use; something non-negotiable. “Like how we’d never leave home without our earphones or power banks, I wanted the user to form a companionship with Novocarry.”
Novocarry, the ‘portable cooling solution’, is apt to store medications like insulin that require refrigeration during transport. And it does this while proving to be discreet, convenient, and reliable.
Novocarry: A potential solution for diabetic patients
This design student’s journey is a mark of serendipity; right from her foray into the bachelor in design, industrial design at NID — “I was initially preparing for my law entrance exam” — to winning the James Dyson Award 2024 — “Novocarry started out as a classroom project.”
Perceived as the gold standard for design awards, the James Dyson recognition fosters problem-solving attitudes, encouraging students to broaden their innovative minds. Recalling her introduction to the Dyson world, Komal recalls seeing the famous hairdryer. “I was fascinated with the technology,” she points out. Her excitement is still palpable through the call.
One thing led to another, taking Komal down a rabbit hole of videos that dissected the hair dryer’s ergonomic design. “I was hooked. It was a Eureka! moment that had me fall in love with design.”
The deeper she dived, the more curious she became. And now that her innovation is James Dyson-recognised, she is elated. “When I was announced the national award winner, it was such validation. It assured me that my product was not just ‘usable’ but also ‘desirable’. This is special since my forte isn’t in engineering.” That being said, she credits the faculty at NID who chipped in to mentor.
From its prototype version — which Komal says resembled a bulky tiffin box — to the final version developed a year later, which is sleekness personified, Novocarry has had a life of its own.
According to a 2023 study, 101 million people in India — 11.4 percent of the country’s population — are living with diabetes. Novocarry could provide them a much-needed respite.
Komal explains that its advanced thermoelectric cooling (TEC) technology is the work of the Peltier chip technology. The heatsinks, shaped like bullet cartridges, maintain a consistent temperature of around 5 degrees Celsius. By snugly wrapping around the vials, they effectively cool them. The fans force air into the device, bolstering the cooling effect. This draws inspiration from beer and vaccine coolers, she says.
In addition to this, the 20-inch powerhouse has ample storage space for diabetics to store their injection pens, needles, vials, and alcohol swabs. Meanwhile, the dual-battery system eliminates any frenzy over low charge.
Once ready for commercial sale, Novocarry could very well be a diabetic’s best friend.
And how did Komal’s dad react? “Oh, he found it very endearing! He was actually my test subject. Each time I came up with a new form of the product, he’d sample it to assess if it worked well,” she smiles.
As for the road ahead, this design student has many ideas in the pipeline. But pinning down the motive, she points out, “The goal of design is not to come up with solutions. In this case, insulin is the readily available solution. So, the goal is to ideate ways of using the existing solution well.”
Edited by Pranita Bhat; Pictures source: Komal Panda
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