{"id":1120,"date":"2025-05-30T14:52:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T13:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/?p=1120"},"modified":"2025-10-30T13:55:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:55:59","slug":"fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"FoNS-MAD: the low cost technologies that can change lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The final of the 2024\/2025 Faculty of Natural Sciences Make-A-Difference competition takes place on Wednesday 22 October 2025. Ahead of this, we hear from the finalists about their projects.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We knew it would happen again.&#8221; That was the certainty Arda Kancal and his teammates brought with them from Istanbul, Turkey. The 2023 earthquake that devastated their country was not the first, and, according to seismologists, almost certainly not the last. With a 60% chance of a similarly catastrophic quake hitting Istanbul by 2030, the team behind D-View entered Imperial College London\u2019s Faculty of Natural Sciences <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/education-and-teaching\/fons-mad\/\">Make-A-Difference (FoNS-MAD) competition<\/a> determined to build something life-saving.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1125\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1125\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"269\" class=\"wp-image-1125 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/D-View-cropped-300x269.jpg\" alt=\"D-View\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1125\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Team D-view: Earthquake rescue drones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Their project, an autonomous drone system that uses low-cost geophone sensors to locate trapped earthquake survivors, was born not only out of a sense of academic curiosity but also necessity. \u201cWe watched as people in our hometowns waited for rescue that never came,\u201d Arda said. \u201cWe knew we had to do something. Something cheap enough for governments to actually use, something deployable, not just theoretical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Now in its eleventh year, FoNS-MAD is Imperial\u2019s only undergraduate innovation competition focused on building real, deployable tech with a social impact. It invites undergraduates across the Faculty of Natural Sciences \u2013 and team members from other faculties \u2013 to prototype low-cost technologies that can change lives.<\/p>\n<p>Each year, a select group of finalists are awarded funding, lab space and a bursary to work full-time over the summer to turn their idea into reality. At the end, they pitch their working proof-of-concept to an expert panel, competing for up to \u00a37,000 in prize money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year, the quality of the proposals we have seen from our teams has been outstanding. We have selected an unprecedented six teams to take through to the final stage of the competition, which is testament to our students\u2019 innovation skills, creativity and teamwork,\u201d said Rebecca Middleton, Director of Education and Student Experience in the Faculty, who has managed the competition since 2014.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1133\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1133\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1133\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/250829_fons_mad_ana_034-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"ANA\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1133\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Team ANA &#8211; A wearable EEG patch for brain health<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Many of the ideas have developed far beyond the lab. Just ask Multus Biotechnology. In 2020, a group of students from the Departments of Life Sciences and Bioengineering entered FoNS-MAD wanting to answer a deceptively simple question: if cultivated meat has such clear benefits for the planet and for animals, why isn\u2019t it in supermarkets yet?<\/p>\n<p>Their answer? The growth media used to culture animal cells was too expensive, too inconsistent, and often derived from animals. So, they built an alternative: Proliferum M, a plant-based growth medium that was cheaper, scalable and animal-free. From their FoNS-MAD project, they launched a company which has raised \u00a37.9 million in funding, received a prestigious European Innovation Council Accelerator grant, and begun building a manufacturing facility for the cultivated meat industry.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1126\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1126\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1126\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/250829_fons_mad_flyewheel_016-1-resized-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"FlyeWheel\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1126\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Team FlyeWheel &#8211; Haptic feedback for prosthetic hands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This year\u2019s competition finalists have proven to be no less ambitious. Sacchrosense will be rapidly creating a prototype of a cheap, at-home diagnostic test built using engineered yeast. When a virus like flu or RSV is detected, the yeast reacts and changes colour, enabling users to visually identify an infection without needing to visit a GP or \u2013 goodness forbid \u2013 self-diagnose using WebMD.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1123\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1123\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"wp-image-1123 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/250829_fons_mad_sense_sacchrosense_022-1-resized-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Sacchrosense\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1123\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Team SacchroSense &#8211; A HRP chromogenic-based surface displayed yeast whole-cell biosensor for the detection of respiratory viruses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Meanwhile FlyeWheel aim to restore tactile sensation to prosthetic users, integrating fingertip sensors with a soft robotic armband that inflates to simulate pressure on the wearer\u2019s arm. Inspired by team member Edwin Ko\u2019s volunteer work with people living with disabilities, their modular system is designed to retrofit existing prosthetics without requiring invasive surgery or costly electronics.<\/p>\n<p>Flyewheel and Sacchrosense are not the only students concerned about democraticising health devices. Students are also aiming to develop sleek, skin-friendly \u2018brain sticker\u2019 or \u2018Advanced Neural Adhesive\u2019 (ANA) that delivers real-time mental health insights to your phone. This wearable neural patch will passively measure EEG brain activity, allowing neurodiverse users to understand and predict their stress and focus levels in real-time.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1129\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1129\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1129\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/250829_fons_mad_lamnia_bio_025-resized-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"LaminaBio\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1129\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Team LaminaBio &#8211; Harness biosynthetic methods to produce eco-friendly, high-quality pigments<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Another team, LaminaBio, is revisiting an enzyme engineering idea that fell just short during a second-year project, attempting to turn algal waste into a sustainable glucose source for biomanufacturing. Their work could eventually reduce reliance on land-grown sugar crops in industrial fermentation, a shift with major climate implications.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Sense++ is tackling inclusivity head-on. Their device aims to convert on-screen content \u2013 text, images, even video interfaces \u2013 into Braille, creating a low-cost, interactive solution for visually impaired users priced well below existing market options like Dot Pad.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1122\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1122\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"wp-image-1122 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/250829_fons_mad_sense_plus_plus_009-resized-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Sense++\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1122\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Team Sense++ &#8211; Tactell (from \u2018tactile\u2019 and \u2018tell\u2019): low-cost device which enables blind users to interact more completely with a computer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe FoNS-MAD competition goes from strength to strength and there are some outstanding proposals from this year\u2019s cohort. It\u2019s inspiring to see so many students engaging in projects that can make a real difference to the world,\u201d said Professor Ramon Vilar, Co-Chair of the FoNS-MAD Committee alongside Dr Thibault Bertrand.<\/p>\n<p>FoNS-MAD, now a staple of the undergraduate innovation calendar at Imperial, continues to offer something rare in higher education: the chance to build something that not only works in theory, but might actually work in the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to seeing how all of our teams progress through their summer lab placement and I am expecting the final event in October to be really exciting and very competitive,\u201d Rebecca said.<\/p>\n<p>The final competition pitches take place later this autumn, but for the winning team, the prize money will just be the beginning.<\/p>\n<p>Register to attend the Faculty of Natural Sciences Make-A-Difference (FoNS-MAD) Competition Final 2025, taking place 16.00 &#8211; 20.00 on Wednesday 22 October at G16 Lecture Theatre and Lower Foyer, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington Campus. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imperial.ac.uk\/events\/197975\/faculty-of-natural-sciences-make-a-difference-fons-mad-competition-final-2025\/\">Register now.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>This article first appeared in the Faculty of Natural Sciences Faculty Magazine 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The final of the 2024\/2025 Faculty of Natural Sciences Make-A-Difference competition takes place on Wednesday 22 October 2025. Ahead of this, we hear from the finalists about their projects. &#8220;We knew it would happen again.&#8221; That was the certainty Arda Kancal and his teammates brought with them from Istanbul, Turkey. The 2023 earthquake that devastated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1510,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48173],"tags":[306294],"class_list":["post-1120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-innovation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FoNS-MAD: the low cost technologies that can change lives - Imperial Natural Sciences blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"he final of the 2024\/2025 Faculty of Natural Sciences Make-A-Difference competition takes place on Wednesday 22 October 2025. We hear from the finalists about their projects.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FoNS-MAD: the low cost technologies that can change lives - Imperial Natural Sciences blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"he final of the 2024\/2025 Faculty of Natural Sciences Make-A-Difference competition takes place on Wednesday 22 October 2025. We hear from the finalists about their projects.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Imperial Natural Sciences blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-30T13:52:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-30T13:55:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/250829_fons_mad_sense_sacchrosense_022-1-resized.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"FoNS News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"FoNS News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"FoNS News\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/#\/schema\/person\/8f243103c96af76b7d83ad94c41fd03c\"},\"headline\":\"FoNS-MAD: the low cost technologies that can change lives\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-30T13:52:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-30T13:55:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/\"},\"wordCount\":1027,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/D-View-cropped-300x269.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"innovation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/\",\"name\":\"FoNS-MAD: the low cost technologies that can change lives - Imperial Natural Sciences blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/D-View-cropped-300x269.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-30T13:52:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-30T13:55:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/#\/schema\/person\/8f243103c96af76b7d83ad94c41fd03c\"},\"description\":\"he final of the 2024\/2025 Faculty of Natural Sciences Make-A-Difference competition takes place on Wednesday 22 October 2025. We hear from the finalists about their projects.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/D-View-cropped.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/D-View-cropped.jpg\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":969,\"caption\":\"D-View\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"FoNS-MAD: the low cost technologies that can change lives\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/\",\"name\":\"Imperial Natural Sciences blog\",\"description\":\" Stories from Imperial&#039;s Faculty of Natural Sciences\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/#\/schema\/person\/8f243103c96af76b7d83ad94c41fd03c\",\"name\":\"FoNS News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43393628ec47e13e8c74462c4370f40c43423821a538a7f17cb5ad81df9a9b52?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43393628ec47e13e8c74462c4370f40c43423821a538a7f17cb5ad81df9a9b52?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43393628ec47e13e8c74462c4370f40c43423821a538a7f17cb5ad81df9a9b52?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"FoNS News\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/author\/fonsnews\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"FoNS-MAD: the low cost technologies that can change lives - Imperial Natural Sciences blog","description":"he final of the 2024\/2025 Faculty of Natural Sciences Make-A-Difference competition takes place on Wednesday 22 October 2025. We hear from the finalists about their projects.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"FoNS-MAD: the low cost technologies that can change lives - Imperial Natural Sciences blog","og_description":"he final of the 2024\/2025 Faculty of Natural Sciences Make-A-Difference competition takes place on Wednesday 22 October 2025. We hear from the finalists about their projects.","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/","og_site_name":"Imperial Natural Sciences blog","article_published_time":"2025-05-30T13:52:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-30T13:55:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2000,"height":1333,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/250829_fons_mad_sense_sacchrosense_022-1-resized.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"FoNS News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"FoNS News","Estimated reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/"},"author":{"name":"FoNS News","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/#\/schema\/person\/8f243103c96af76b7d83ad94c41fd03c"},"headline":"FoNS-MAD: the low cost technologies that can change lives","datePublished":"2025-05-30T13:52:40+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-30T13:55:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/"},"wordCount":1027,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/D-View-cropped-300x269.jpg","keywords":["innovation"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/","name":"FoNS-MAD: the low cost technologies that can change lives - Imperial Natural Sciences blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/D-View-cropped-300x269.jpg","datePublished":"2025-05-30T13:52:40+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-30T13:55:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/#\/schema\/person\/8f243103c96af76b7d83ad94c41fd03c"},"description":"he final of the 2024\/2025 Faculty of Natural Sciences Make-A-Difference competition takes place on Wednesday 22 October 2025. We hear from the finalists about their projects.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/D-View-cropped.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/files\/2025\/10\/D-View-cropped.jpg","width":1080,"height":969,"caption":"D-View"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/2025\/05\/30\/fons-mad-the-low-cost-technologies-that-can-change-lives\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"FoNS-MAD: the low cost technologies that can change lives"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/","name":"Imperial Natural Sciences blog","description":" Stories from Imperial&#039;s Faculty of Natural Sciences","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/#\/schema\/person\/8f243103c96af76b7d83ad94c41fd03c","name":"FoNS News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43393628ec47e13e8c74462c4370f40c43423821a538a7f17cb5ad81df9a9b52?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43393628ec47e13e8c74462c4370f40c43423821a538a7f17cb5ad81df9a9b52?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43393628ec47e13e8c74462c4370f40c43423821a538a7f17cb5ad81df9a9b52?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"FoNS News"},"url":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/author\/fonsnews\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1510"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1120"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1170,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions\/1170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/natural-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}