A Filipino engineer has won the prestigious James Dyson Award with a portable keychain microscope that can be used by pupils without classroom equipment.

Jeremy de Leon, 28, developed the 'Make-roscope', a pocket-sized microscope that attaches to smartphone or tablet cameras. The specimen slide is placed on top of the lense and the magnified details are seen on the device's display screen.

The DIY fanatic made the item for a local 'innovator challenge' sponsored by the Philippine Department of Science and Technology (DOST) during the pandemic in 2021.

However, Jeremy went on to beat 47 entries for the Philippine leg of the James Dyson Award, earning him a 330,000 PHP (5,800 USD) prize. He will now be competing against other international winners for a prize of around two million PHP (35,260 USD).

The inventor, a manufacturing engineering graduate from Mapua University, said the idea was sparked by the lack of laboratory equipment to cater to students in the third-world country, stunting the growth of scientific development.

Jeremy said: 'I realised when I was doing the DIY microscope and I presented it, that even I struggled to create a DIY microscope behind the scenes. So I thought that there is a better way for children to have one.'

From an initial low-cost prototype involving a hair clip, a laser pointer, and a phone camera, Jeremy was able to obtain seed money, which he used to buy 3D printers, 3D-printing software, and silicone moulds to refine his Make-roscope design.

Jeremy managed to secure a 125,000 PHP (2,200 USD) grant from the DOST, which he then used to mass-produce 3,000 Make-roscopes. Some 1,000 units were donated to schools across the Philippines, while the rest went on sale to fund further production and research.

According to the Make-roscope website, the microscope is able to magnify organisms by 125 to 400 times their size. The product comes with a kit, which includes prepared specimen slides, and tools like tweezers, tubes, and pipettes to obtain samples.

Jeremy added: 'I plan to expand our cause to the international level since we will have that international exposure. I'm sure the lack of laboratory equipment is not limited to the Philippines, other countries have that too, so we're going to provide a solution.'

The James Dyson Award is run by British inventor James Dyson who founded appliance company Dyson. It is an international design award that aims to inspire young innovators to create 'clever' and 'commercially viable' solutions to address existing problems.