Amid sharp deterioration in the Covid-19 pandemic situation in Assam, a group of students from Tezpur University has developed a portable ventilator to fight the deadly virus.
The Department of Electrical Engineering has undertaken the initiative to design the portable ventilator, an essential instrument for patients who are unable to sustain the level of ventilator necessary to maintain the gas exchange functions.
The initiative was part of a project, awarded as the ‘Best Innovative Engineering Idea’ under the banner of Prof. Aparna Kumar Padmapati Annual Scholarship from Assam Engineering College Class 88 Foundation for the year 2020-21.
The scholarship is an initiative of alumni of Assam Engineering College who passed out in 1988, popularly known as the AEC Class 88 Foundation.
The group of students involved in the designing of the ventilator includes Bihung Muchahary, Aniket Raj, Manish Kumar and Ankita Das.
The students worked under the guidance of Chiranjit Adhikary and Firdausa Ahmed, both worked as guest faculty at the Electrical Engineering department in the university.
The project is supervised by Soumik Roy, Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
“The purpose of the project is to design a portable mechanical ventilator by automating the operation of ‘Ambu Bag’ with volume control ventilation which can be used in respiratory failure,” Roy said.
“Ambu Bag” is a hand-held device commonly used to provide positive pressure ventilation to patients who are not breathing adequately or have problems in breathing.
“Another important objective of the project is to implement Internet of things (IoT) based features like monitoring of patient activity and controlling parameters of ventilator through an App,” he added.
Roy said the design is sufficiently economic and by using IoT as a remote controlling feature, one can control and monitor the ventilator parameters through devices like mobile phones, tab and computers.
“Besides, it will prevent both the clinicians and the doctors from getting infected from the airborne transmission,” he added.
The machine is cost-effective and would be available at an affordable price costing between Rs. 8,000-15,000 depending on the features of the machine.