Overview

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Columbia University established the DIY Ventilator Challenge in April 2020 for teams to create an open-source, low-cost emergency ventilator in the event of a dire shortage of ventilators. The goal was to create a mechanism that can automatically inflate and deflate an ambu bag in a systematic manner, and Columbia would select 10 teams to create a working prototype of their designs. I participated in the challenge along with two research scientists from the Columbia University Medical Center to create a ventilator design and our team won the design challenge.

Design Specs

Our design uses a linear actuator controlled by an Arduino Mega microcontroller to push the ambu bag back and forth. It includes force sensing resistors and differential pressure sensors to measure the air pressure. If there is a critical drop in air pressure, then the system will sound an alarm notifying the healthcare worker. The compact footprint of our design allows the ventilator to be used either horizontally or vertically, which can be important to save space in crowded hospital wards. The design mostly uses off-the-shelf parts which are readily available from several vendors and distributors, and it can be easily assembled.