Mumbai Student Designs 'Cool' Ventilation System for PPE Kits

Nihaal Singh Adarsh developed this belt after his mother shared her own struggles of wearing PPE kits.

Ventilation belt designed by Nihaal Singh Adarsh

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

19-year-old Nihaal Singh Adarsh has designed a new ventilation system for PPE kits to make it more convenient for doctors and other healthcare professionals to wear them and be comfortable in them.

One of the major issues with PPE kits is that they can make the person wearing them feel very hot. Doctors usually end up working for hours on end in these PPE kits, and to bring some relief to them, Nihaal has come up with a belt-like ventilation system that can be worn inside PPE kits. The belt runs on a lithium-ion battery that last for 6-8 hours. It takes the surrounding air, filters it and pushes it into the PPE suit. Hence, it ensures that the person wearing it is not feeling hot and also avoids fungal infections.

A second-year student of KJ Somaiya College of engineering, Nihaal first thought of making something like this after witnessing his mother's struggle when she wore PPE kits.

His mother, Dr Poonam Kaur Adarsh, is a COVID-19 doctor currently working at Pune, and when she would return from work every day and narrate her experience about how she and others like her would be drenched in sweat after wearing PPE kits, that's when Nihaal decided to do something about it.

Nihaal with his mother, Dr Poonam Kaur Adarsh.

He developed this belt as part of a design challenge for COVID-19-related equipment, organized by Technological Business Incubator, Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory.

"Since the ventilator is worn close to the body, high-quality components have been used and safety protection measures have also been taken care of. When I told my mom that I am going to file a patent for this product, she was very happy. Being a General Physician, my mother uses it whenever she goes out for work," said Nihaal in a statement to PIB.

Ventilation belt designed by Nihaal

He also mentions that this belt is like 'sitting under the fan while you're inside the PPE.'

The belts have been used at Lotus Hospital and Sai Sneh Multi-Speciality Hospital located in Pune. Nihaal was assisted in this project by Ritwik Marathe, a second-year student of Design Engineering and his batchmate Sayli Bhavasar.

(With inputs from PIB).