Inventing our way out of the COVID-19 crisis: roles, responsibilities, and a way forward

Speaker: Manu Prakash, PhD, Associate Professor in Bioengineering at Stanford University

Date: Tuesday, July 14th, 2020 at 4:00pm-5:00 pm

Zoom Webinar: Please click link for registration
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Abstract: Prof. Manu Prakash and his team are developing several frugal science projects for equipment to help COVID-19 patients and doctors that can be scaled up quickly for use. An important role of his team is to bring scientific analysis to do-it-yourself (DIY) projects by working with clinicians and engaging in approval processes for the FDA. In the seminar Manu will describe the ideas for and status of his COVID-19 projects, such as a converter that makes full-face snorkel masks into reusable personal protective equipment (PPE), guidelines for decontaminating N95 masks, universal remote for controlling ventilators from outside a patient’s room, ventilator built with abundantly available parts, simple filtration test setup for face masks, technique for spinning filter fibers, reminiscent of cotton candy machines.

Biography: Manu Prakash is an Associate Professor in Bioengineering at Stanford University, affiliate of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, and a Pew Scholar. His lab applies techniques derived from soft-condensed matter physics, fluid dynamics, computer science, and bioengineering to study the structure and function of biological entities. Prakash was born in Meerut, India, where he earned a BTech in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. He then did his master’s and PhD in applied physics at MIT before moving to Stanford.