COVentilator
 COVentilator overall design |  The design flow of the COVentilator |
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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen an urgent need of ventilators to support the COVID-19 patients. However, the ICU ventilators are very limited in number compared the requirements; the complexity, time and cost involved in developing each ICU ventilator has been a huge obstruction in the fast-forward production of this system. Thus it led to the shortage of this medical equipment. So, we designed COVentilator: a low-cost, easily deployable, medical grade ventilator which can be assembled within a few hours and will require only $300 per unit production (only 10% the cost of ICU ventilators).
Applications: Primarily developed to fulfill the needs to coronavirus affected people. But the medical grade features make COVentilator suitable for all different types of patients with minor to medium respiratory problems.
Timeline: March, 2020 - May, 2020
Collaborator(s): Eric Bennett, Winnie Liang, Michael Salisbury, Dr. Jonathan Budzik, Achal Nilhani.
Awards & Honors:
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Winner Project of University of California (UC) Berkeley Hackathon on Solutions for COVID-19. Received Project Grant $1,000 and incubation support.
Media Coverage:
Theory behind Working: COVentilator incorporates all the important, adjustable features of a medical grade ventilator system, including Flow Rate, Tidal Volume, Percent Oxygen, Positive End-Expiratory Pressure (PEEP). The different sensors (Pressure, Volume, CO2, Flow Rate) are interfaced with the controller which further sends feedback to the valves for opening/ closing as per need. User Input is sent to the controller through a visual interface and the inputs are used to set the sensor parameters. Use of air-pumps in place of AMBU bags increase the accuracy and control on the air flow rate, thus improving the control of the ventilator system.