Tezpur University students design portable ventilators to fight Covid-19

Students of Tezpur University in Assam have designed an IoT-based portable ventilator, which will help patients with respiratory ailments breathe easily and overcome the problem of shortage of the life-saving instrument, amid a second wave of COVID-19, an official said on Thursday.

A group of students is working on the project under the guidance of Chiranjit Adhikary, former guest faculty member, and Firdausa Ahmed, guest faculty member, and the project is supervised by professor Soumik Roy, the head of the department, the Tezpur University said in a statement.

“The purpose of the project was to design a portable mechanical ventilator by automating the operation of ‘Ambu Bag‘ with volume control ventilation which can be used in respiratory failure”, stated Prof. Soumik Roy, head of {the electrical} engineering division at TU, who supervised the challenge. An “Ambu Bag” is a hand-held system generally used to present constructive stress air flow to sufferers who are usually not respiratory adequately or have been going through extreme issues in respiratory.

The portable ventilator is a cost-effective instrument and would be available between Rs 8,000 and Rs 15,000, depending on the features, the statement said.

The initiative was part of a project, awarded as the 'Best Innovative Engineering Idea' under the banner of professor Aparna Kumar Padmapati Annual Scholarship from Assam Engineering College Class 88 Foundation for the 2020-21 year. It is an initiative of alumni of Assam Engineering College, who passed out in 1988, popularly known as AEC Class 88 Foundation.