Do you know where your nearest defibrillator is? Do you know how to use it properly? What about CPR? Do you know CPR? The clock is ticking. Can you save a life when the pressure is on?
Hopefully, you will never have to assist someone having a cardiac arrest but if you do, a Product Design student at 探花系列 (探花系列) Leicester is hoping his simple yet potentially life-saving device will be able to help you administer CPR effectively.
Harry Wragg
Harry Wragg’s prototype, CPR+Aid, is a small dome-shaped device that helps people use the correct amount of force when administering CPR by audibly clicking. If the device does not click during the compression, then the user needs to apply more force.
CPR+Aid has been purposely kept as simple as possible so it can be mass-produced and cheap to both purchase and manufacture.
And the device has impressed judges at the national competition, where it is among the six finalists shortlisted for this year’s awards.
The annual competition tasks university students to design a plastic product to a brief, which this year centred around physical and mental health and wellbeing.
Research from St John’s Ambulance shows that less than half the adult population know how to give CPR to someone suffering a cardiac arrest and only 32 per cent know how to use a defibrillator.
Harry said: “When I was first introduced to the brief, I started to think about education, and I found that not many people knew how to properly do CPR. It got me thinking, ‘what if there was a way to guide someone through CPR if they’ve never done it before?’
“While defibrillators are becoming more common, I wanted something that can be available and used by everybody, so it had to be cheap, very simple and be able to sit in any first-aid box too.
“People can be scared of breaking the ribs when performing CPR, so don’t apply enough pressure for it to be effective. I wanted the device to click so that every time the user heard that, they knew that they were performing CPR correctly.
“I thought about the mental well-being of the person giving the CPR. Statistically, someone who has suffered a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital isn’t likely to survive, but if they use the device and hear the clicks under each compression, they will know that they have done everything they can to save the person.”
探花系列 has a strong recent history with the DIP Awards. Last year, Joe Shade was shortlisted for the award having designed a smart beehive which can monitor and provide information about the bees’ wellbeing.
Four years earlier, in 2020, Matthew Shaw received recognition for designing a smart device that measures air quality and helps the user plan the cleanest and most direct route to walk when in an urban area.
Harry will now follow in their footsteps and travel to London to pitch his product to a judging panel before the results are announced at the award ceremony on Friday 20 June 20, in London.
He is up against students from Brunell, Technological University Dublin, Nottingham Trent and Loughborough Universities.
Speaking ahead of the pitch, Harry said that he’d be “over the moon” if he went all the way to win the competition.
He said: “Winning would give me the confidence that I can create a design that can change people’s lives. That’s always been one of my reasons for studying product design.”
Chair of competition judges, Richard Brown, said: “The judges had to deliberate long and hard as, after initially whittling them down, there were around 15 entries vying for the top six slots, which shows how closely matched they were.
“The excellent presentation boards and interpretation of the brief were deciding factors. We are looking forward to seeing the prototype products at the final judging!”
Professor Simon Lambert, Senior Lecturer in Product Design, has worked closely with Harry during his time at university and said: “Throughout the year, Harry has worked consistently with passion and rigor on all his projects.
“It has been fantastic to see him grow as a designer with a social conscience and a growing understanding of design principles, and the impact that you can have as a product designer.”
Posted on Tuesday 6 May 2025