Life-saving portable technology wins top awards

Professor Olaf Diegel's personal challenge led to the design of a multi-award-winning product.

The award-winning LifeinaBox

Professor Olaf Diegel, one of our faculty's recent appointees, is kicking off his year with two additions to an already impressive resume of awards.

His startup, Lifeina, was named a winner in the Tech for a Better World category at the prestigious CES Innovation Award in Las Vegas earlier this year. This achievement came shortly after being presented with a Prix Galien award in the Connected Objects category in late 2018.

Lifina’s award-winning product, LifeinaBox, is reminiscent of a portable Bluetooth speaker, and at 36cm2, is currently the world's smallest smart refrigerator. It runs on a combination of thermoelectric energy and batteries – users can run the device in any condition for 24 hours after charging it with a car cigarette lighter – and is used for the safe transport and storage of fragile medications. The portable device additionally connects to a mobile application for users to manage their temperature and intake schedule.

Lifeina is one of many collaborative efforts between Professor Diegel and his brother, Uwe. LifeinaBox was originally driven by a personal need – Professor Diegel, a diabetic, once "almost got into trouble when my medication was frozen in a hotel". His personal circumstance prompted the brothers to design a portable fridge for the millions of people worldwide who suffer from similar conditions, including Cancer, growth defects, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Multiple Sclerosis. LifeinaBox proceeded to win numerous design awards.

As the head our new Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Laboratory, we are looking forward to seeing Professor Diegel enrich our next generation of students with his technical expertise, commercial acumen, and interdisciplinary approach to technology. What he hopes to bring to us is “an understanding of how additive manufacturing – if properly designed for and used in the right way – can change how we approach product development and manufacturing, and add tremendous value to New Zealand’s offerings to the world”.