It is our proud moment to congratulate our beloved members Anneysa Banerjee and Achal Nilhani along with Team COVentilator for being the Winner of the 2 days Online COVID-19 Hackathon organised by the Center of Emerging & Neglected Diseases (CEND) at University of California, Berkley. Their award winning design of a low-cost, easily deployable ventilator is hoped to solve the crisis at heath-care centers amidst the Corona Virus pandemic.
The online hackathon was targeted for students, academics, industry and public health professionals together in teams to solve this pressing global health challenge. Through online platforms and resources provided by CEND, teams will self-assemble and congregate virtually to develop innovative solutions. Altogether approximately 85 scientists contributed, and 14 proposals were submitted for judging. Two winners were chosen based on feasibility and greatest potential for immediate impact. The prototype development of the winning projects will be supported by Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and CITRIS Foundry, the Co-sponsors of this event.
Ventilator shortage has become a real problem and many researchers across the globe are trying day and night to come up with a solution. The ventilator proposed by Team COVentilator is designed following all the medical guidelines of FDA, includes features to tune parameters like Peak and Plateau Pressure, Tidal Volume, PEEP, FIO2 and Breath rate as per the patients' need. Despite the features available, it will cost only $300 and will take not more than half an hour to assemble and use. Annesya and Achal have mainly been involved in the prototype design and validation part. The design is unique from many other open source ventilator projects as this design replaces the Ambu-bags with a more accurate component. Existing low-cost ventilator designs are too simple to be used for critical medical purposes. With this new design, team COVentilator hopes to effectively address the crisis of this product at health sectors. They are currently involved in the R&D of the prototype and further funding opportunities can accelerate the industry level production of the final prototype.
To get more details about the event, follow the link below and get in touch with us for exploring the idea in depth. Also share your perspective in comment section below. We will be pleased to address any query you have regarding this.
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