The “Enginy contra la COVID-19” awards are a solidarity initiative that seeks to support projects carried out by UPF students of Engineering to develop tools to enable citizens to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

The first phase of the competition received sixteen entries, from which the evaluation committee has selected four for the first phase of the competition.  Each team will receive €2,000 to get its project under way over the next six weeks. For the second phase, there will be two final awards of a further €1,500 for the projects that the committee deems as being better developed. The results of the second phase will be announced on 10 July.

The projects presented had to fit one of the four strategic goals (“challenges”) established by the evaluation committee. The projects selected in phase 1 are:

Challenge 1 - To design items of physical facial protection for the public

Team: PAPIRO MASKS

Project title: “Medicine & Engineering Progress”

“Given that as of now and for a long time to come masks will be an essential complement to our everyday wardrobe, we propose the creation of masks with a unique, totally innovative, simple design that is in addition affordable and easy for the public to make. In our model, we replace the current conventional design with masks made of totally transparent plastic so that the wearer’s mouth is visible”, the Papiro Mask team members explain.

Challenge 2 - To optimize the management of personal protective equipment for health workers

Team: CoVida

Project title: “Double-Glass”

“Today, there is a problem for users of prescription glasses to wear protective goggles. It has been proven that one of the main routes of transmission of Covid-19 is the eyes, which makes the use of goggles essential. Our proposal is based on an add-on device to attach prescription glasses to protective eyewear. The device can be manufactured by 3D printing, so it will be easy to access and involve a low production cost. The device is easy to attach and detach from the glasses and will be convenient for the wearer to use”, the members of the CoVida team comment.

Team: Covid Riders

Project title: “Protocol for the implementation of rooms for disinfection via UVGI radiation for the reuse of PPE”

“There is currently a lack of supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) in hospitals, and many health centres consequently have to reuse such disposable equipment (gowns, masks, gloves, surgical caps and shoe covers), and Spain is the country with the highest number of infections among healthcare personnel. Thus, there is a clear need to disinfect PPE for reuse, considering that health workers change their equipment some ten times a day. Moreover, this leads to an increase in the accumulation of waste products (such as masks and disposable material) causing pollution in coastal areas. Due to this need, we propose a protocol for the rapid implementation of a disinfection system based on ultraviolet radiation emission sources (ultraviolet germicidal irradiation - UVGI) to irradiate the material used by health personnel, PPE in particular, and disinfect it so that it can be reused”, the Covid Riders team members suggest.

Challenge 3 - To design strategies and tools for safe de-escalation

Team:  Sine Die

Project title: Application to control capacities

“Our entry is an application to control the capacity of establishments. There will be two types of user: the public and the establishments. Citizens can access the application to check the capacity of localities (restaurants, stores, pharmacies, etc.) and depending on the situation, make a booking or join a queue to enter. Moreover, the establishments will be able to have a record of the number of visitors and manage bookings or queues”, the Sine Die team asserts.

The “Enginy contra la COVID-19” awards are driven by Antoni Ivorra, a professor of Engineering at UPF, a researcher with the BCN MedTech unit, with researchers from his team Laura Becerra Fajardo, Jesus Minguillón, Borja Mercadal and Tomás García Sánchez, with Nerea Mangado and Jérôme Noailly, members of BCN MedTech, and sponsored by the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC), the Maria de Maetzu Units of Excellence programme, the UPF Board of Trustees and the QUAES-UPF Chair. The project is included in the crowdfunding campaign launched by UPF to combat the coronavirus: #UPFContraElCoronavirus.

Enginy contra la COVID-19

Information https://www.upf.edu/web/enginycontralacovid

Donations: https://www.upf.edu/web/enginycontralacovid/donacions