Ventlock
A bio-inspired ventilator splitter
Completion date
Spring 2020
Partners
See credits below
Disciplines
Product Design, Digital Fabrication
Location
Johns Hopkins University
Early in the pandemic, researchers at Johns Hopkins University were working to develop a ventilator splitter that would enable health care workers to individuate patient oxygen levels while preventing cross-contamination.
The idea was to design an adjustable ventilator splitter and a HEPA filter case that could be printed on inexpensive consumer level 3d printers for mass distribution.
Vent-lock was developed in response to global ventilator shortages which highlight the global medical care inequities.
Africa has only 2000 ventilators across 41 COUNTRIES.
Due to my work with Professor Sung Hoon Kang during an artist residency at Hopkins, I learned about the project and joined as a fabricator for the fused filament print tests.
At this time, any campus access was severely limited so I volunteered my home-based 3d printing studio to produce the prototypes. I assisted in material testing with nylon, pla and petg as well as advised on slicing and printing settings for all prototypes.
Colleague Brockett Horne and I also assisted in the development of the visual communication packages. We were both honored to assist in such an important project.
Fused Filament Fabrication
Jenna Frye
Graphic Design
Brockett Horne
This project took a literal village…
Principal Investigators
Prof. Julie Caffrey, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Burn Fellowship Program Director, Prof. Sung Hoon Kang, Mechanical Engineering and Institute for NanoBioTechnology, Prof. Jamie Guest, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, Center for Additive Manufacturing and Architected Materials
Project Lead
Helen Xun, Medical Student,
Dean’s Research Fellow
Medical Team
Prof. Bradford Winters, Medical Director, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Prof. Bo Soo Kim, Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, Prof. Adam Sapirstein, Director, Division of Adult Critical Care Medicine (Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine)
Johns Hopkins Simulation Center
Julie Perretta (Simulation Education Program Manager), Jordan Duval-Arnould (Director of Simulation Research), Joe Dwyer (Interim Director of Pediatric RCS), Sajid Manzoor (Adult RCS)
Washington University in Saint Louis Team
Justin Sacks (Division Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, MD), Michael Montana (Anasthesiology, MD, PhD), Bradley Kushner (General Surgery, MD), Jeffry Latnki (Center for Advanced Medicine, MD), Broc Burke (Anasthesiology, MD, PhD), Michael Talcott (Veterinary Surgery, DVM), Peggy Frisella (Institute for Minimally Invasive Surgery), Pooja Yesantharao, Medical Student, Dean’s Research Fellow, FDA Approval Consultant
Engineering Team
Prof. Vicky Nguyen, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Joe Katz, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Christopher Shallal, Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate student, LEAD ENGINEER , Runhan Tao, Biomedical Engineering Graduate Student, Justin Unger, Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, DESIGN LEAD, Michael Vladimirov, Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, Federico Ferrari, Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, Alberto Torres, Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, Mohit Singhala, Department of Mechanical Engineering