My degree of difference

Monitoring nutrients to help our planet continue to provide for us

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Ryan Waterhouse, MDes (Hons) Product Design graduate

As the human race faces more pressure than ever to find sustainable solutions to feeding a rapidly increasing population, student Ryan Waterhouse found that one solution lies in getting your hands dirty. In total, 90% of the food we eat is grown in topsoil – the fertile layer of earth that sits at the surface and is full of the nutrients plants need to flourish. However, those nutrients are degrading fast – scientists predict that we will run out of usable topsoil in the next 60 years unless a solution is found.

Ryan took that challenge on as his final year project, developing a product called Terra Nova that measures the critical nutrients in topsoil and gives that data to users via a digital display and an easy-to-use app.

The product allows anyone who uses topsoil to grow produce to better manage how they use their soil. It collects data about the degradation of the topsoil it is measuring, and can provide advice to users on ways to improve crop quality and yield, and how to reduce soil degradation. "Every minute, the planet loses 30 football pitches worth of usable topsoil," explains Ryan, "so finding a way to reduce that can make a huge difference to creating a sustainable future for the generations that follow us."

Ryan's creation hasn't just caught the eye of his lecturers at BU, however – he recently won the Best New Designer Award at the prestigious New Designers show (the highest prize awarded at the annual show).

"I'm honoured to be recognised with such a prestigious award," said Ryan of his achievement. "There are so many amazing projects at New Designers, with talented designers accompanying them. My next hope is that my work, and other work like it, is taken forward to help us preserve this precious resource."