Yusuf Muhammad

Muhammad was born in Sidcup.[1] He studied Mechanical Design, Materials and Manufacture at the University of Nottingham, earning a Masters in 2006.[2] He completed the Industrial Design Engineering Masters at Imperial College London in 2008.[3] In his second year he won £25,000 from the New Business Challenge to develop a fire extinguishing system.[4]

Plumis was established whilst Muhammad was the Royal College of Art.[5] Working with Paul Thomas and Jeung Woo Choi, he designed a series of solutions to suppress fire.[6][7] He joined the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, redesigning the modern ambulance.[8] He won the transport award in Designs of the Year.[9]

In 2009 the Automist, a fire extinguishing system, won the James Dyson Award.[10] Automist uses mist to control fires and can be more effective than sprinklers for chip pan fires.[10] The Automist was selected as one of the British Library's Top 15 Inventions of the last decade.[11] He appeared on the BBC Two show You Too Can Be an Absolute Genius’.[12] Automist went on to win Innovation of the Year.[13] He went on to design the Automist Smartscan, which won the 2016 Red Dot and a Silver award from the Industrial Designers Society of America.[14] He is a popular public speaking, discussing design and fire safety.[15][16]