[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/crosstown.jpg” caption=”Lindsey Kettel and Cory Minkhorst have entered their award-winning Crosstown collapsible bicycle trailer in an international design competition and they need your vote to win the Canadian category.”]Mechanical engineering and management graduates Lindsey Kettel and Cory Minkhorst need your help.

The two inventors have entered their award-winning Crosstown collapsible bicycle trailer in an international design competition and they need your vote to win the Canadian category.

The James Dyson Award celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers. Its winner takes home approximately $19,000, with a matching prize for their school's design engineering department.

“The money would definitely help to get us further along in commercialization,” said Minkhorst. “If we were to win the overall award, the donation would also be great for the mechanical engineering department!”

While the overall winner is chosen by Dyson with the recommendations of a panel of expert judges, the competition also includes a People's Choice Award. The public is encouraged to vote for their favourite design, which is done by country of residence. The most popular choices from each of the 21 participating countries automatically qualify for the judged competition.

Though the trailer is fundamentally the same, Kettel and Minkhorst have made many design modifications since their wins at the Ontario and Canadian Engineering Competitions earlier this year.

“This is our third prototype of the trailer,” said Minkhorst. “The first was a simple design made from off-the-shelf materials like plywood and door hinges. We now use panels framed with aluminum tubing and covered with aluminum mesh, which has made the trailer lighter and stronger. We also reversed the folding direction and changed the towing arm in order to make it simpler and faster to stow the trailer on the back of the bike.”

Kettel and Minkhorst came up with the collapsible bicycle carrier idea for their final year capstone project in mechanical engineering. They were inspired by research showing that more people would bicycle to work if they had a convenient, safe and secure way to transport things on their way to and from their destination.

Voting closes July 20 and People's Choice Award winners will be announced on July 21. The overall competition winner will be announced Monday, September 7.

For more information on the James Dyson Award, visit their web site. To view and vote for the Crosstown, click here.