Projects

Need Ventilators with minimal functionality that can be mass-produced for development countries. Goal Evaluate whether it is reasonable to increase ventilation capacities in countries with resource-limited clinical infrastructure and how the pathway for the industrialization of a minimal-function ventilator in Switzerland could look like. Establish a decision basis for the Executive Board of…

Need Low and middle-income countries with more fragile medical systems are in great need of low-cost ventilators to raise the capacity of their healthcare systems. They are likely to be left out of the current surge in ventilator development for COVID-19 in developed countries.  Goal We are a team of engineers, an industrial…

Need COVID-19 test samples must be collected and transported from a hospital to a laboratory where they are analyzed. The turnover time (time between taking a sample and getting a result) is approximately 24 hours. This is too long for priority samples, where a turnover time of 6 hours is targeted. At the…

Need Every day new information and rules about COVID-19 are decided. This information must be distributed as quickly and easily as possible to nurses, doctors, and all other people. At the moment, this is a tedious process. The information is sent individually to selected people in departments, who should then pass it to…

AI-Based App for COVID-19 Screening Using Coughing In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, mass coronavirus testing has proven essential to governments in monitoring the spread of the disease, isolating infected individuals, and effectively “flattening the curve” of infections over time [1]. However, this oropharyngeal swab test is physically invasive and must be…

Need Preventing COVID-19 entrance in elderly homes Elderly homes are completely locked down. There are only two entry points for the COVID-19. Either through the acceptance of new patients infected before entering the home or through staff members. This project focuses on staff members. They constantly need to remember to behave safely during…

Need To be ready for the potential high demand for hospital beds, emergency hospitals are being set up all around Switzerland. These facilities need an oxygen pipe system to distribute the oxygen from large fluid oxygen tanks to all intensive care beds (demand per bed 10 l/min on average). Copper pipelines are the…

Need Face shields serve as a prevention of infection transmission through face touching and direct contact with infected air. 3D printable face masks could be produced and used as an alternative to full-face masks. Goal Produce RC3.1 face shields: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/25857-prusa-protective-face-shield-rc2 This project is being developed in close cooperation with anesthesiologist Dr. med. univ.…

Background In the next weeks, a shortage of medical staff is expected, especially in the intensive care unit (ICU) due to more incoming patients who have to be ventilated. Bottlenecks of the medical staff are expected. Need The need is to simplify the organization of the prone position process to avoid Goal The…

Formerly Communication in Infection Environments Need Healthcare professionals often communicate with portable devices, such as smartphones. However, when entering spaces with infectious contamination like rooms with patients harboring the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, these devices cannot be used. At the same time, healthcare professionals need to be available continuously, hence being reachable by phone…

Need Protective respirators like FFP2, N95, and surgical masks are in a strained supply. To ensure the availability of masks, prolonged use, and reuse may be required. Goal The goal is to find techniques that allow to deactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus and retain filtering function. There is no guideline as of March 2020…