With a background in engineering, I enjoy tackling seemingly insurmountable problems. Before founding hand hygiene company Vaask®, I led the development of a system that reduced food waste by prolonging the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. I also worked on systems to improve sleep. These both came as part of my work leading early-stage product development at fan and light maker Big Ass Fans.

After the company’s sale in 2017, our early-stage team joined Founder Carey Smith as he started Unorthodox Ventures, an Austin-based investment firm that offers everything investors lacked when they approached him near daily at Big Ass Fans.

We work side-by-side with founders to help them quickly break even so they’re not forced to seek endless investment and give away the majority of their companies before they’ve even introduced a product. It was with the assistance of my colleagues at Unorthodox Ventures that I started Vaask.

Ever since childhood, I’ve enjoyed the three-dimensional arts. What started with ceramics as a kid turned into dabbling in so many types of art in high school and even winning some state-level awards. In fact, I almost went to art school but ultimately decided to pursue an engineering degree with the idea that I could bring my preference for elegance in art to engineering projects.

In early 2020, as the pandemic took hold, I grew frustrated by the hand sanitising experience. Now more important than ever, hand sanitiser was a design failure on every level with always-empty automatic dispensers, drips and messes everywhere, and a reliance on single-use plastic bottles. With the help of the team at Unorthodox Ventures, I developed Vaask as a touchless hand sanitising fixture.

At the core of Vaask’s design is a belief that a product should be adaptable, repairable and waste-free. To that end, all parts are accessible and designed to be repairable to extend the system's life in perpetuity.

Vaask solves the series of problems so common with traditional hand sanitising dispensers.

No batteries to change: Vaask runs on AC power or Power over Ethernet (PoE).

No replacement needed: Backed by a 5-year warranty, Vaask is made of cast aluminium and steel and built to last.

No more making rounds: An accompanying online dashboard and app alert staff when it’s time to refill, eliminating the time-consuming chore of checking individual fixtures and also ensuring fixtures always stay filled.

No waste: Vaask’s high-capacity sanitiser tank can be easily refilled with any gel sanitiser, reducing costs for customers and cutting down on plastic waste.

No drip, no mess: A PalmPilot® laser sensor precisely detects hands with the fixture instantly reversing flow if a person pulls their hand away. No more messy misfires causing damage to floors or creating slip-and-fall risks.

Design to me means I get to solve problems in an elegant way.

My favourite kind of design would definitely be three-dimensional design and sculpture! I enjoy the physical, as well as the hands-on process that comes with building something. My engineering background also influences my art with the goal of always being practical.

Considering all the factors that matter. Beyond an elegant appearance, a good product design has to be able to solve problems.

The first step in design should always be identifying a real problem to solve and not just focusing on something that needs to look better. With Vaask, the process began by realising that hand sanitising needed a complete overhaul and then determining the many individual failures of the experience at that time.

In designing and developing Vaask, I consulted with architects, designers and healthcare professionals throughout the process to ensure Vaask addressed all of traditional sanitiser’s many shortcomings. It’s so important to speak with people who will actually use your product. It’s something that entrepreneurs never can do enough of as they iterate.

America has such a rich history of industrial design. It’s unfortunate that we’re seeing so much of our manufacturing capability outsourced to other countries.

It’s truly an honour to have our work be recognised along with so many other products that are solving today’s most challenging problems!

The pandemic saw the dramatic expansion of sanitiser dispensers in public spaces but design failures prevented or discouraged many from using them. Automatic dispensers, when they even have sanitiser, create messes with poor infrared sensors. Single-use plastic bottles require touching and often look unsanitary. And harsh chemical ingredients and foul-smelling formulations turns many off.

Designed to permanently replace the endless array of single-use plastic hand sanitiser bottles and always-empty automatic dispensers, Vaask is the superior solution for hand hygiene.

We set out to use only American suppliers and manufacture Vaask here in Austin, Texas. While we accomplished that goal, the diminishing number of American manufacturers lengthened the design process and proved frustrating at times.

It’s an honour to be recognised by the London Design Awards as this validates our approach!

Designers exhibit fearlessness, aspiration and the kind of optimism that you typically see only in entrepreneurs.

Behind each of Vaask's differentiating features is a focus on advanced technology, designed to create a reliable experience. Vaask incorporates a high-end stepper motor and peristaltic pump, ensuring that it dispenses the correct amount of sanitiser every time.

Also, Vaask’s proprietary PalmPilot sensor eliminates drips and mess. The PalmPilot technology measures the speed at which light photons leave the sensor and return. Because the component measures speed rather than light, the PalmPilot sensor precisely detects hands of all sizes, as well as hands of any shade that would otherwise flummox everyday infrared sensors.

Ideally it would be a stronger focus on repairability with more products designed for forever rather than planned obsolescence.

Never be afraid to do something that other people aren’t doing. That’s where the opportunity is!

Trying something out for yourself is the best way to begin honing your skills.

In college, I studied to become an environmental engineer, but after spending eight months testing emissions at a number of chemical plants, I realised that’s not the kind of design and engineering career I wanted to pursue.

My grandfather worked as a successful entrepreneur in the communications field building a company focused on microwave dishes. Up until the early 2000s, you could see his green microwave dishes all around the country.

Never assume someone understands what you’re asking or trying to tell them. Finding the answer you seek often requires asking a multitude of people in a multitude of ways.

I truly appreciate the recognition and would like to congratulate the other winners and their outstanding projects!