James Dyson Award 2026 has recognised Lingampalli Himaja, a BTech student at Shri Vishnu Engineering College for Women, for developing RUDHRA, a voice-enabled Braille printing system. The innovation was inspired by her visit to a school for visually impaired students, where she observed the difficulties of using traditional Braille slates. RUDHRA allows users to speak what they want to print. The system integrates Alexa and Raspberry Pi to convert speech into text and then into Braille patterns, which are embossed onto paper. Himaja worked on improving the accuracy and spacing of the Braille dots through multiple prototypes. Himaja, who is pursuing Electrical and Electronics Engineering, has won the 2026 India National Winner title and a prize of approximately ₹6 lakh. She will now represent India in the international round of the James Dyson Award. The current prototype costs around ₹1.5 lakh, while Himaja aims to develop a smaller version costing about ₹50,000–₹60,000.
James Dyson Award 2026: Himaja Wins India Title for RUDHRA
