The University of Technology, Sydney, has named Aung, 25, as winner of the Casey Hyun Industrial Design Graduate Award for an emergency-services bed he hopes will save lives.

The bed was a major project in his Bachelor of Design in Industrial Design degree and was ``100per cent influenced'' by the month he spent volunteering in Burma after Cyclone Nargis hit in May last year.

He showed homeless survivors how to set up the ``difficult'' tents, which did not have instructions in Burmese and helped a group of architects who were planning more permanent shelters and structures. ``It was far worse than what I expected,'' he said. ``It was incredibly hard to see the people in my own land suffering. As heartbreaking and shocking as it was, it allowed me to use my skills to do something about it.''

It also brought his attention to the need for a bed which could be set up on unstable ground, such as on the side of a mountain. ``There's not always shelter or flat ground and often if a woman needs to give birth it will happen on the floor.''

The bed frame folds onto the side of a backpack and Mr Aung has been in discussions with Medecins Sans Frontieres about the product's potential. Mr Aung said the developing nation had changed drastically and nothing was as he remembered. He arrived in Australia two years ago after spending a decade completing high school and college in the United States.

The Hills residents Daniel Edwards, Matthew Phipson, David Consalvi and Michelle The were also awarded at the ceremony for the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building.