Public Panel and Discussion tonight about "Plan C" and other news...

[Robert Read]

Dear Team,

Dale Dougherty, Publisher of Make Magazine, has been talking alot about "Plan C" -- the communal Maker response to COVID-19, which stepped in when government (Plan A) and industry (Plan B) failed to provide PPE in the early days of the pandemic.  I'm a panelist this afternoon in a zoom meeting to discuss this; I of course mostly know about ventilators but will be discussing the transition to more sophisticated devices and getting FDA approval.

https://makezine.com/2020/09/02/plan-c-live-building-resilient-communities/

In other news, I've been working very hard to build and ship 10 units of the T0.3 VentMon Tester. This is a device that can be used to test/calibrate ventilators. We've been given a grant to give these away free to open-source teams all over the world. A number of teams have requested them of us. Although Public Invention has no intention of making a ventilator, VentMon represents about half the work that goes into a full ventilator. 

In other news, Dr. Chris Ferguson and his team of volunteers are getting close to launching our "stay-at-home-STEM" project to allow youngsters to measure bacteria in water with petrifilms, to raise awareness of our "Moonrat" project to build a portable incubator.  We've made a great video for this launch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyBjOb-CyCk

Additionally, Avinash Baskaran has created a small project: a "patient inflating valve". This is essential component of a pandemic ventilator which closes the airway when air is to enter the patients lung. It is simple, but not an off-the-shelf component. David Jeschke, with a little help from me, continues to work on the Math Tablet project.

Megan Cadena and Enrqiue Villacres and I are working with Erich Schultz, MD, and Abdullah Alanazi, medical student, to write an academic paper showing the importance of short "rise time" in pandemic ventilators, a concept not every ventilator team understood initially.

Finally, Ben Coombs has started a new Public Invention project: and oxygen concentrator. I've been working with a small division of the United Nations, UNTAP, and Engineers Without Borders, and it is clear that the need for therapeutic oxygen is at least as great a need as ventilators. Perhaps surprisingly, it is easier to build an oxygen concentrator than a ventilator.

[Stephanie Liu]

Great update! IS there more info on the O2 concentrator anywhere?

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[Robert Read]

We don't have a lot yet, and Ben (who is from new Zealand) is on vacation right now. But let me give you some partial background:

1) For anyone with COVID-19 who needs hospitalization, they need therapeutic O2 before they need ventilation.

2) COVID-19 increases the need for for O2 beyond normal.

3) Supplies worldwide differ widely.

4) There are $1500 commercial units which are NOT good enough for a very sick COVID-19 patient, and only one. So you might need many such.

5) Building an open-source O2 concentrator is a technical challenge, but easier than building a ventilator.

6) Ben is planning to build about a 20-bed unit (about refrigerators sized)

7) He is working with people in Afghanistan.

8) The VentMon, which I've been working on since March, is roughly usable for building an O2 concentrator (the pressure sensors are wrong, but they can be changed easily.)

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Robert L. Read, PhD

Twitter: @RobertLeeRead @pubinvention

Public Invention: https://www.pubinv.org

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[Lea Shanley]

Have you all seen the Tool Foundry, sponsored by the Schmidt Foundation and Gordon & Betty Moore?

Denice Ross and Ruthe Farmer (former Obama Alums) serve on the selection committee, and Tom Kalil is behind funding it. Would you like me to forward any promo materials to Tom?

https://www.toolfoundry.org/accelerator/

Kind regards,

Lea

Lea Shanley, PhD

Senior Fellow, Nelson Institute

University of Wisconsin-Madison

http://www.linkedin.com/in/LeaShanley

@Lea_Shanley

[Lea Shanley]

And you may want to check out Low Risc from the UK

https://www.lowrisc.org/

Kind regards,

Lea

Lea Shanley, PhD

Senior Fellow, Nelson Institute

University of Wisconsin-Madison

http://www.linkedin.com/in/LeaShanley

@Lea_Shanley

[Robert Read]

Thanks, Lea. I'm not sure how to use those systems. Possibly we could learn from them in terms of marketing and organization. Did you have a specific interaction in mind?

[Lea Shanley]

The Tool Foundry model (which is under Luminary Labs) may be worth looking at for incentivizing teams for rapid prototyping teams. 

Perhaps they may have another round of funding for teams next year for which one of your projects could apply? 

Or, perhaps Schmidt Futures would consider funding your organization too?

Kind regards,

Lea

Lea Shanley, PhD

Senior Fellow, Nelson Institute

University of Wisconsin-Madison

http://www.linkedin.com/in/LeaShanley

@Lea_Shanley

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[Dorothy Jones-Davis]

I'll echo support for Tool Foundry; I was there when they kicked it off last year. It's a great program.

Best,

Dorothy

Dorothy Jones-Davis, PhD Executive Director, Nation of Makers (202) 495-0873 | dor...@nationofmakers.us www.nationofmakers.us My pronouns are she/her/hers, what are yours? Click here to schedule a meeting with me Make a tax-deductible donation to Nation of Makers here

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On Mon, Oct 26, 2020 at 10:48 AM Lea Shanley <lash...@gmail.com> wrote:

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