Alumni Efforts
COVID-19 Self-Test Kit
Santo Purnama, cofounder of Singapore-based biotech startup Sensing Self, developed a rapid COVID-19 self-test kit. The kit uses enzyme analysis to offer results in around 10 minutes, instead of using nostril swab tests, which take up to an hour.
“The war against COVID-19 is a war against time,” Purnama told e27.com. “Early detection of the COVID-19 virus can make a difference between life and death.”
On the Front Lines
Margaret (Booher) Holtman (BS’15) posted on Instagram about life as an ER nurse during a pandemic. Holtman contracted the COVID-19 virus while treating patients. Her symptoms were mild, and once she recovered, she returned to work at Community Health Network in Indianapolis.
“I’m here for you,” Holtman told her Instagram followers. “I’ll answer your questions honestly. I’ll listen to your concerns, and I’ll be here at work, running full-speed toward this crisis. It’s real and it’s serious and we are fully aware of the physical and emotional injury we suffer for you. Because we love you.”
Donate PPE
After seeing news reports about doctors and nurses reusing N95s, Deyu Kong (ME’14), system application engineer at NIO, founded the nonprofit DonatePPE.org to organize and distribute donations of personal protective equipment to healthcare providers in hotspots across the United States. In six weeks, the organization distributed more than 1.2 million articles of PPE.
“As the PPE supply chains recover in the US, we are now looking abroad to see how we can leverage the connections and partnerships we have built to help countries with fewer resources,” says Kong.
On Election Day
Charles Bruce (ECE’73) served as an election judge for the Illinois primary election on March 17. Although concerned friends and family encouraged him to bow out, Bruce fulfilled his obligation, albeit with additional precautions. He selected attire that would limit his skin exposure and packed an all-day supply of rubber gloves, face masks, and hand sanitizer.
“There were certainly times during the day — when a voter coughed loudly and the crowd scattered as if a firecracker had gone off — that made me question my wisdom for showing up to fulfill my duties as a judge,” Bruce says. “But I was encouraged by the surprising and uplifting frequency of people casting their ballot and then saying to me, ‘Be safe.’ ‘Stay healthy.’ And most notably, ‘Thank you for being here to allow me to cast my vote.’”
GM and Ventec Life Systems
In just one month, a partnership between Ventec Life Systems and General Motors went from a phone call to delivering critical care ventilators to frontline medical professionals fighting COVID-19. GM manufacturing engineer Brian Zinser (M’14) typically develops automobiles at the company’s Warren, Michigan, headquarters. As part of the team tasked to convert GM’s Kokomo, Indiana, plant from producing cars to ventilators, Zinser helped design the assembly line for the ventilators and source the tooling necessary to construct them.
“The night that the first production unit came off the line it was around 2:00 a.m., and a lot of us had been there since 6:00 a.m. the day before,” Zinser says. “Nobody wanted to leave. We were just waiting for it to get through that final test. In that moment, it was just relief. We did it. The entire plant cheered and celebrated. It was a cool moment for us to all realize we can do anything when we put our minds to it.”
The Ventilator Project
The nonprofit Ventilator Project, launched March 20 by Boston-based entrepreneurs Tyler Mantel (ChE’13, ME’13) and Alex Frost, aims to address the projected shortfall of ventilators, life-saving devices critical to the fight against the global crisis. Three days after the project’s founding, 15 engineers began working on designs for a simpler, cost-friendly ventilator specifically for COVID-19 patients. The project quickly grew to more than 200 remote volunteers helping in all areas of the business. The engineers iterated AIRA, the fourth prototype, within two weeks.
“A ventilator is not really a complicated mechanical design, but it is a very complicated supply chain problem to get 13 million out in a few months,” Mantel told University of Cincinnati news. “The only people in the world that can rise to that sort of scale is startups.”
Contact Tracing Software
Kokomo Solutions, founded by Daniel Lee (ECE’97), developed a cloud-based technology designed to help improve school safety by proactively tackling mental health concerns, bullying, and other public safety issues with a predictive analysis powered by an artificial intelligence model. The company repurposed the technology to help organizations and communities collect, track, and manage COVID-19 cases with contact tracing features.
“I have always felt good about helping schools with public safety, and now I’m excited for the opportunity to use this technology during the current pandemic,” Lee says.
Masks for the Frontline
With frontline health care workers facing a widespread mask shortage, Northwest Interiors switched from making curtains and bedding for the RV industry to sewing masks. Reid Mellott (M’99), a partner at the company, began looking for patterns online.
“We made some prototypes and, in fact, my 11-year-old daughter sewed a prototype for us at home on her machine,” Mellott told RVBusiness. “That ended up being the one we’re using.” With the RV industry facing an uncertain future, the pivot to producing PPE keeps the Wakarusa, Indiana, factory rolling. “Everybody’s shut down, but we’ve been called to action. It’s almost like a wartime feel. We’ve got a lot of good, positive vibes going on.”
A Community Effort
Sarah Corwin, a doctoral candidate and graduate research assistant in food science, joined a community-wide effort to sew masks to donate to Greater Lafayette health care workers.
“As a clinical dietitian, I am fortunate that I don’t have to go on site currently,” Corwin says. “But previously I worked in a nursing home, and you need a dietitian on site per state law. It’s not just people in hospitals who need PPE; it’s health care workers everywhere. They hold up the American people. And we need to hold them up.”