IITs, other institutes develop innovative devices to fight coronavirus

As coronavirus (Covid-19) spreads its footprint across the nation, students from premier academic institutes have joined the battle to beat the invisible enemy. Several innovations have come up at various IITs to deal with the growing crisis. 

IIT Bhubaneswar has designed a safe and multi-surface sanitiser using UVC light for the disinfection of devices.

"You can place an infected object into the chamber and once it gets exposed to ultraviolet light, the device would be disinfected within 15 minutes," said Prof RV Raja Kumar, Director, IIT, Bhubaneswar, speaking about the device.

He added that the university has developed the chamber for the disinfection of masks, PPEs worn by the doctors and devices like cell phones, etc as they "cannot be disinfected with soap water easily".

But there is a long way to go before it can be used in homes, as it first needs to be certified by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). "This device has been developed based on the results available for SARS CoV-1 and the same device is expected to work for SARS CoV-2. We are going to test for SARS CoV-2 and then get a certificate from ICMR," he added.

Prof RV Raja Kumar further said that the device was developed to control the number of deaths of healthcare workers due to Covid-19.

A device that can tell if a coughing person is a Covid-19 carrier

Two students of the Jadavpur University have developed an intelligent device which will analyse if a coughing person is a Covid-19 carrier.

A teacher of Innovation Council of Jadavpur University said on Tuesday that two undergraduate students of the Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering have developed the device which will track a coughing person and analyse if the same person is a possible suspect of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19).

The device can be used as a first-level screening system to identify the Covid-19 carrier with available data and thus help in containing the spread of the disease.

The non-contact device, which has embedded image and sound sensors, will work even if the person is away from the device and can even identify multiple coughing persons at the same time.

The device can be used in quarantine centres, office- spaces, classrooms, or built-up areas with gatherings for monitoring the people present there.

Presidency University students extend help to distressed casual staff of hostel

To help the casual employees of the hostel, who are facing economic hardships due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown, students of Presidency University have donated money to them. The students of Presidency University on Monday gave Rs 3,000 each to eight casual employees of Hindu Hostel, who are facing economic hardship as the institution and hostel are closed due to the pandemic.

Subho Biswas, one of the students of Presidency University said they raised the amount from boarders, ex-students, and other well-wishers. "We know Rs 3,000 is a small amount for a family in the present situation. But we are thankful to everyone for chipping in. We will continue to assist these people in the future. Our fundraising will continue," Biswas said.

Containment box jointly developed by IIT Ropar to protect health workers

The Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar on Monday said it has jointly developed with private hospital DMC a containment box to protect frontline health workers in the fight against Covid-19. The aerosol containment box has a design that can allow it to be converted into a negative pressure chamber by connecting the vacuum from the wall-gas supplies which are readily available in most hospitals, said a release issued by the IIT Ropar.

"The aerosol particles are passed through a micron level filter before being passed out to atmospheric air which are standard fittings in most hospital vacuums," it said. This box has been tested at Dayanand Medical College & Hospital (DMCH) in Ludhiana for its aerosol containment capability.

"Patient comfort has been validated through volunteers lying with the box over their heads for more than one hour. They did not feel claustrophobic and their oxygen saturation levels remained normal throughout the test. "The advantage of this design is that it can be made and deployed very easily by hospitals themselves without depending on any external supply chains many of which are broken due to the lockdown across the country," it said.

IIT Madras start-up develops smart dustbin system to prevent Covid-19 spread

An IIT Madras-incubated start-up has developed a 'smart bin system' to prevent the spread of Covid-19 through waste generated at hospitals, clinics, public places, and quarantine zones. Called 'AirBin', the system developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras enables remote monitoring of waste accumulation levels through a smartphone. The system can be retrofitted on to existing garbage bins on nearby poles, walls, or the bin lids. 

According to start-up "Antariksh", the digital waste management system can generate alerts to sanitation teams at regular intervals on fill levels and on-demand clearance requests from end-users for faster disposal of contagious waste.

"While we are dealing with the spread of Covid-19, hazardous waste is being generated in hospitals, quarantine zones, or red zone areas within cities. They are potential sources of coronavirus and can cause further spread within the locality. This makes timely clean-up of bins vital along with other best practices for disinfection to prevent further spread of Covid-19," said Mahek Mahendra Shah, a Mechanical Engineering graduate from the institute.

"The objective is to help rural and urban local bodies clear every bin before it overflows and accelerate sustainability. The product is likely to hit the market in five months. We will supply first 200 AirBin devices across India in the next few months with long-term plans to deliver 1,00,000 units for 100 Smart Cities in India," he added.

IIT-K'S corona killer box that sanitizes everything

The IIT Kanpur has achieved another feat in the fight against coronavirus. Scientists at the IIT-K have come up with a corona killer box that will sanitize all essential commodities that are brought into homes from outside. Vegetables, fruits, sugar, milk, pulses, mobiles, rupees, and keys, etc. can be sanitized in the box within minutes.

The ultraviolet rays released from this can kill the bacteria and viruses in objects within minutes. The sensor-based box also has an alarm that can be set for a specified period of time. Prof J Rajkumar of the mechanical engineering department who led the team with Shivam Sachan and Ashok Prajapati, said, "This box has several ultraviolet lights, which range between 240 and 260 nanometers. The approximate price of a box is around Rs 5,000. The IIT is contacting companies for its manufacture and large-scale production will naturally reduce the cost of the box."

IIT KGP creates online forum to reach out to stranded foreign students at the institute

The IIT Kharagpur has created an online forum to help stranded foreign students at the institute share their problems faced during the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of novel coronavirus, a spokesperson of the institute said on Sunday.

The Office of International Relations (OIR) is reaching out to the foreign students and is also sharing academic information on the forum, he said. The institute is presently hosting students and postdoctoral fellows from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe, the spokesperson said.

The OIR is also helping the students get an extension of their visas and is processing their scholarships so that they don't face difficulties during the lockdown, he said. "Several foreign students are getting financial aid under international programmes run by us and outreach bodies of the Centre. We have ensured that they receive their scholarships on time.

"We have assured them that they have nothing to worry and like other students of the institute, the IIT Kharagpur campus is their home away from home," Associate Dean of International Relations, Professor Anandaroop Bhattacharya said.

IIT-Delhi's PRACRITI to predict district, statewise Covid-19 transmission rate

Prof Anoop Krishnan and his team of researchers at IIT-Delhi have developed a web-based dashboard called -- PRACRITI -- which can predict the district and state wise transmission rate of Covid-19. PRACRITI stands for Prediction and Assessment of Corona Infections and Transmission in India.

"PRACRITI is a web-based dashboard developed by researchers at IIT-Delhi. It gives details of state and district wise predictions of Covid-19 spread in India. Specifically, it gives the transmission rate of each of the districts in India, and that enables the authorities and the public to know how to control and mitigate coronavirus transmission in India," Prof Krishnan told ANI.

"It gives a three-week prediction of Covid-19 spread of each district in the country. These predictions are updated on a weekly basis to account for any variations in India including changes in the government policies and weather conditions," added Prof Krishnan.

Talking about the inspiration behind making PRACRITI, a Civil Engineering student at the IIT-Delhi, Hargun Singh Grover said: "To develop the prevention and mitigation strategies for Covid-19, it is important to understand what exactly is the scenario in each district and how the scenario can change if the lockdown conditions are changed."

IIT-Delhi develops Covid-19 test kit, gets ICMR's approval

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi has developed a Covid-19 test kit, which has got the approval of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). "We started working on it by the end of January and got it ready in three months. We wanted to contribute to affordable low-cost diagnostics that could be used in large numbers," V Perumal, Professor at IIT-Delhi, told ANI.

Perumal said that it is a swab testing kit. "Testing will be cheaper than all existing devices," he said, adding that the device is affordable for commercial production. ICMR had on Thursday approved detection assay for Covid-19, which has been developed by researchers at IIT-Delhi's Kusuma School of Biological Sciences (KSBS).

"The assay has been validated at the ICMR with a sensitivity and specificity of 100 per cent. This makes IIT-Delhi the first academic institute to have obtained ICMR approval for a real-time PCR-based diagnostic assay," read a statement from IIT-Delhi.

PGIMER, AIIMS to study effectiveness of Mycobacterium w in Covid-19 patients

Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh and AIIMS Delhi and Bhopal will study the effectiveness of Mycobacterium w in critical Covid-19 patients. "PGIMER Chandigarh and AIIMS Delhi and Bhopal will study the use of Mycobacterium w (heat-killed Mycobacterium indicus pranii) as an adjunct to the treatment of critically ill Covid-19 patients," a PGIMER statement read on Sunday.

Mycobacterium w (Mw) originally developed as an immunomodulator for leprosy, acts through the toll-like receptor pathway and enhances host-T cell responses, it read. In a recently concluded multi-center trial, the PGIMER found that Mw reduces mortality in ICU patients with severe sepsis.

"Mw can potentially decrease the cytokine storm seen in patients with Covid-19, and may thus be of potential benefit in managing these patients and decreasing mortality. In the pre-study phase, we assessed the safety of Mw in four hospitalised patients with Covid-19, and found no short-term adverse effects," it said.