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The alarm cup

Rumaan
Age 11Grasby, UK

This idea has been brought to life

The ingenious idea for the Alarm Cup was brought to life by Chief Inventor Dominic Wilcox and ceramicist Donnas Peterson.

Rumaan said about her idea "I started thinking about what we throw away at home and what would help us stop this happening. Apples are my favourite fruit, but they were always going all soft when my mum left them out in the fruit bowl and forgot about them...

...That’s when I thought of my idea and started drawing the Alarm Cup. I thought that we all need something that could help us use up our fruit by sounding an alarm before it goes off, instead of letting it end up in the bin. I couldn’t believe it when my teacher told me I had won!"

The completed alarm cup is a ceramic bowl with an inbuilt app that you can use to program the expiry date of the food. An alarm will sound when the food is about to expire, ingenious!

Rumaan's alarm cup going into the kiln to be fired.

The completed alarm cup is a ceramic bowl with an inbuilt app that you can use to program the expiry date of the food. An alarm will sound when the food is about to expire, ingenious!

Donnas said 'I feel privileged to have played a role in turning the child's invention into reality. Hand thrown on my potter's wheel, Rumaan's clever 'alarm cup' idea is a simple yet effective way to help combat food waste. The internal pedestal also thrown on my potter's wheel, complete with holes makes absolute sense for air to circulate inside. The idea to include a little device to alert you is such a useful feature. Well done Rumaan - I wish I had thought of it!

Rumaan got the chance to visit Peterson pottery studio to see her invention being made real!