Pandemic Ventilator at the Canada Wide Science Fair

I mentioned earlier that my son Jeff had built his own pandemic ventilator and entered it in a science fair. At the regional science fair he won; Award of Merit, Gold Medal in Senior Engineering, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Innovation Award, a Conestoga College Entrance Scholarship, a University of Guelph Entrance Scholarship, a University of Waterloo Entrance Scholarship and a Wilfrid Laurier University Entrance Scholarship.

He also got the opportunity to enter in the Canada Wide Science Fair and compete against the top entries from all of Canada. At the Canada Wide Science Fair he won an Honourable Mention in Engineering and the Engineers Without Borders prize. The Engineers Without Borders prize is awarded to a humanitarian engineering project that can improve the lives of people in developing nations. Jeff will also be invited to the next Engineers without Borders Canada national conference.



Here is a link to the WWSEF awards page.


Here is his project report.



Here is a picture of the ventilator in its case as it was presented at the Canada Wide Science Fair




Here is the compressor





Here is the PLC



This pandemic ventilator design has its own air source so it does not rely on hospital high-pressure air sources. This allows it to be able to be used in settings outside of the standard hospital ICU. It has a link to a PC via LabView software. It has a pressure transducer to measure airway pressures. There are alarms for airway overpressure, line occlusion and loss of air from the compressor. The PC keeps track of minute volume, total volume, respiratory rate, PLC connection status and alarm status. It also shows a real time pressure waveform. The PC could be located outside of an isolated patients room in order to reduce the number of times staff have to enter the isolated room. An external monitor such as this can reduce risk of staff exposure and also reduce personal protective equipment usage.

The video shows the ventilator operating with a lung simulator. The patient overpressure, line occlusion and loss of compressed air alarms are demonstrated.

WWSEF Science Fair Results

Below is the pandemic ventilator prototype "Norman". Norman was built by one of our developers in his automation and robotics class.

This prototype is named “Norman” after Norman Burn. Norman Burn was the Chief Technician at the Department of Anesthesia at Newcastle. Norman Burn built many of the very first positive pressure ventilators. Some of his “home made” ventilators were used during the polio epidemic in Britain in 1947. (link here)

This developer is a high school student and has contributed to the Pandemic Ventilator Project right from the beginning. He has added many insights to the design of the project and did all the PLC programming for "Max" as well as his current prototype. He entered "Norman" in the Waterloo Wellington Science and Engineering Fair.


The Pandemic Ventilator at the Science Fair


He won 3 awards at this Science Fair:

• Silver Medal in the Senior Engineering Division

• The University of Ontario Institute of Technology Innovation Award for demonstrating the most innovative development, adaptation or use of technology in a science project.

• An Award of Merit
  

In addition to the awards, his project has been accepted to participate in the National Canada Wide Science Fair to be held in Ottawa Canada from May 10 to May 18th 2008.

We congratulate him on his hard work and dedication.


Receiving the Silver Medal Award
for Senior Engineering



Receiving the University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Innovation Award for Demonstrating the Most Innovative Development,
Adaptation or Use of Technology in a Science Project




Receiving the Award of Merit

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Correction

It seems there was an error made at the awards ceremony. Instead of the silver medal he was awarded, he was supposed to have received a gold medal and several university and college scholarships. So, we congratulate Jeff on his gold medal award. Here is a link to the official site.

Here are the awards he was supposed to have received:

• Award of Merit,
• Gold Medal, Senior Engineering,
• University of Ontario Institute of Technology Innovation Award,
• Conestoga College Entrance Scholarship,
• University of Guelph Entrance Scholarship,
• University of Waterloo Entrance Scholarship.
• Wilfrid Laurier University Entrance Scholarship.
  

His project is also entered in the Canada-Wide Science Fair

Norman Running on Video

In the blog so far I have written about and shown two prototype pandemic ventilators that we are working on. They are “Vinnie” (link here), and “Max” (link here). Today I will present the third prototype. This prototype will be named “Norman” after Norman Burn. Norman Burn was the Chief Technician at the Department of Anesthesia at Newcastle. Norman Burn built many of the very first positive pressure ventilators. Some of his “home made” ventilators were used during the polio epidemic in Britain in 1947. (link here)

A high school student at Forest Heights Collegiate in Kitchener Ontario is building “Norman”. It will be entered in the Waterloo Wellington Science and Engineering Fair to be held on April 1 2008.


Picture Here


Norman Pandemic Ventilator


Rockwell Allen Bradley Micrologix 1500


Ventilator Compressor


Jug of Water on the Bellows Plate


“Norman” is built from readily available components that can easily be obtained or re-purposed from other uses during a pandemic. It was constructed using the original design (link here) and is similar to “Max”, but with a few changes and improvements.

• The bellows is a vertical slider instead of a hinged bellows. The slider is constructed from Bosch struts (link here) and plastic panels. It is an innovative design that does not jam, yet is easily constructed and forgiving of slightly out of tolerance assembly.
• It uses an integral compressor so that it does not need to rely on pressurized air being available, but only electricity.
• It has a pressure transducer instead of a manometer. A restrictor valve has been added in the “to patient” line, so that the inspiration time can be adjusted.
• The bellows bag is a 2-liter PVC peritoneal dialysis bag. This is a very strong bag and has run many hours with no breakdown or apparent wear.
• The PLC is an Allen Bradley Micrologix 1500.
  

Here is a video of Norman running.



You can see that there is a jug of water on the bellows plate. Adjusting the amount of water in the jug on the bellows plate controls the maximum pressure generated by the bellows. The Checkmate pressure gauge behind the ventilator shows the maximum pressure is about 22 cm water. The Boeringer spirometer is recording a tidal volume of about 400 cc and a minute volume of about 7 liters.