LONDON — John Noble, a designer based in Malaysia, has won the $50,000 first prize in the inaugural Live EDGE Electronic Design for the Global Environment challenge organized by Premier Farnell plc. Noble has designed a product called MyFan, a ceiling fan that combines an electronically commutated motor and controller, and aerodynamically efficient blade design that reduces fan input power by up to 66 percent of that of a traditional ceiling fan.

The design includes auxiliary output channels that drive up to 20 watts of integrated LED lighting with up/down lighting modules. The motor construction is totally enclosed and is available with an IP5x environmental rating. Noble has also won a support an estimated additional $50,000 to move the design towards production.

The support package includes the services of an electronic design consultancy that will develop the design to prototype stage, assistance with legal matters and IP registration, marketing and publicity, as well as Premier Farnell's help in securing investment funding. The group hopes to actively market the end product to millions of customers globally through their leading edge Web page, catalogue and direct marketing. Launched in May 2007, over 3,500 design engineers, students and academics from 102 countries have registered for the competition.

According to the judges, the design demonstrated the best originality and innovation of the entered designs, the highest technical merit, a reduced effect on the global environment, provided the best feasibility of design, clearly showed efficient use of energy, provided innovative use of components, good cost optimisation, completeness of design dossier and excellent supporting documentation.

John Noble (right) receives his winning cheque from Harriet Green, Premier Farnell's CEO.

The five runner ups who each received $5000 are:

- Thomas Reiter a student from Austria designing a unique miniature battery saving switch-mode power supply;

- Minesh Bhakta from the U.K. designing an energy gauge that helps manage the use of electrical sockets;

- Carlos Marques from Portugal on behalf of his company ID-Mind, who's design is for a 3D SunTracker optimising the effectiveness of solar panels;

- Dale Stepps from Florida in the U.S. on behalf of his company Inteltech Corporation for a solid state luminare

- Alaistair Macfarlane from Scotland designing a LED intelligent light.

"Our congratulations go out to John, we look forward to working with him to register his design and support him through production into the market, said Harriet Green, CEO of Premier Farnell. "We feel we have really provided an opportunity for environmentally friendly design and look forward to continuing this challenge in the future. We are proud to encourage the design of products that change the lives of at least 3 billion people. We will constantly work towards providing the best service, technology and support to our critically important design engineering customers." Registration for Live Edge 2008 is not yet open but you can register to receive details here.