Technion graduate ingenuity is instrumental in a hack to rapidly produce affordable ventilators to equip hospitals around the world and save lives.
Amid a global shortage of ventilators, Technion graduates collaborate to develop an ingenious solution for the rapid production of ventilators, with a product called AmboVent-1690-108.
The AmboVent project, is led by Technion graduate in electrical engineering Maj. Dr. David Alkaher, who is presently CTO and innovation leader of Unit 108 in Israel Air Force. The emergency project involved over 40 partners including Magen David Adom (MDA), Microsoft Israel’s Garage program, which focuses on hack culture, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael, FIRST Israel, a Technion-led robotics competition for high school students, the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov), and Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
The Garage is headed by Technion graduate in Computer Science Guy Shalev, a serial innovator with experience designing and implementing dozens of projects, from medical hardware to military grade equipment.
The system itself was developed in a matter of 10 sleepless days. Now, the team is offering the source codes, parts lists, and engineering designs for free to medical teams and professionals around the world so they can follow the instructions, and produce and deploy the hack in their countries to save the lives of coronavirus patients. The specifications have generated thousands of views and requests for details and information.
Ventilators are a global bottleneck in treating life-threatening respiratory symptoms of COVID-19. With severe respiratory distress, mortality rates rise even further when ventilators are unavailable. Israel’s coronavirus death toll is today up to 60, with 9,006 confirmed cases.
