Nottingham Trent University student receives DIP award at New Designers show for innovative lattice cast concept

A new medical product designed to help people recover from injuries won this year’s DIP

award at the New Designers show, for the most innovative use of plastics.

New Designers is the design show which enables over 2,500 graduates to present ideas to

industry professionals and this year the award sponsored by DIP went to Jake Inglis from

Nottingham Trent University.

His winning design was Morphopaedics, an advanced polymer orthopedic lattice cast

designed to be used as an alternative to traditional plaster or fibreglass casts.

Morphopaedics is injection-moulded with Nylon 6/6, giving a breathable, lightweight

structure aimed at improving comfort and hygiene while delivering effective immobilisation.

Jake says the product is a sustainable solution, easy to apply and more comfortable for a

patient, giving a host of benefits which shorten the recovery period and reduce

complication rates, thereby easing the burden on overstretched healthcare systems.

“The inspiration behind Morphopaedics comes from a personal journey. In 2019, I broke my

back playing hockey and spent three months immobilised in a wheelchair, relearning how to

walk. That experience gave me a deep, first-hand understanding of the challenges patients

face during immobilisation, from discomfort to loss of independence.

“When I returned for my final year of study, I was determined to explore how design could

improve quality of life during recovery. Morphopaedics was born from that mission, not just

as a cast, but as a step toward smarter, more human-centred fracture care.”

Jake has already patented the innovation and is looking forward to commercialising the

product while pursuing his Masters at Imperial College London.

Our judges, design/industry specialists, Steve Blanks, Alicia Chrysostomou, Alastair

Swanwick and Kristen Tapping - all members of the DIP committee – commented on Jake’s

concept: “Jake had an impressive understanding of the material and properties, with clever

use of polymers. He has filed a patent and we can see it being commercialised in the

industry.”