Mackenzie Smith is an industrial design student at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD) and she wants to help everyone have a good night sleep.
Though it started as a class project, Smith's concept design,
The Sanitary Sleep Station, has reached the semi-finals of the global Electrolux Design Lab competition, and she is now one of 35 designers (out of over 1,700 submissions from undergraduate, graduate and working professionals) being considered for the grand prize. Smith is also the only student from the United States who is still standing.
The concept, Sanitary Sleep Station, is a highly personalized air purification system that reacts in real time to users changing body conditions while they sleep.
Smith credits her class with Tom Edwards and the overall Kendall experience as key to her success. "Kendall does a great job with hands-on design," she says. "I really enjoy the small size of the industrial design classes."
Eventually, six designers will advance to the final stage of the competition, where a panel of Electrolux experts will determine the winners of 1st prize (5,000 Euro and a six-month paid internship at Electrolux), 2nd prize (3,000 Euro), and 3rd prize (2,000 Euro). A public online vote will determine the winner of the People's Choice Award and 1,000 Euro. Smith says the the finalists will be announced in October.
In the meantime, regardless of the outcome of the competition, Smith will be honing her design chops with an internship at the highly regarded Tiger Studio in Grand Rapids.
To learn more about Smith's design, you can visit
her submission here.
Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs News Editor
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