AN anti-terrorism device which could lessen the damage caused by car bombs has won a competition to find the country's best new inventions.

Glasgow School of Art student Andrew McCalister picked up the plaudits for N-Capsulate, a product that can be clipped on to buildings to protect them from the effect of shrapnel and shockwaves from bombs.

It deploys like a giant airbag when a building is hit, releasing a net like material which captures shrapnel and can absorb the energy from the shockwaves a bomb creates.

The idea came to the 21-year-old after the attack on Glasgow Airport last year, and just days after winning the student category at the Biggart Baillie Innovation Awards, Andrew, from Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, has been approached to take his prototype to the next stage of development.

Andrew said: "The brief for my product came about in the middle of last summer when I was trying to think of what to do as a final year project.

"It was at this time that there was a large media coverage of incidents including the one at Glasgow airport and I found I kept asking myself there must be a solution to this?'.

"It was then I knew what I wanted to do for a project.

"The more I researched it, the more I realised there was a huge need for a product that helped prevent the growing problem of car bombings.

"It is a product that is extremely relevant to problems now being faced by civilians as well as military personnel."

The awards, created by the Glasgow Science Centre, are supported by lawyers Biggart Baillie, and the city dominated.

Every person shortlisted in the student category studied or came from Glasgow, with at least one person from the area appearing in the Open and Women only category too.

Mamta Singhal, 27, from East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire was singled out for praise for her Filket', an eco-friendly kettle and filter.

Winner of the open category was David Holdsworth, from Fife, with an eco-friendly fuel nozzle and winner of the women's category was Dr Katharine Duncan with her bounce aid running shoe which protects the lower limb.

Each winner received £1000 and intellectual property support from Biggart Baillie.

Student category judge Kirk Ramsay, chief executive of the Glasgow Science Centre, said: "It gives me great confidence for the future - we have the entrepreneurs of tomorrow on our doorstep and it is this talent which will create economic growth."