Professor Leon Williams, Director of the Centre for Competitive Design (C4D) at Cranfield University, was part of an international judging panel for the Field Ready Ventilator Challenge.
Working with a variety of corporate and national partners, Field Ready aims to bridge the gap between education and employment by producing graduates who are ready to work in the industrial sector.
The Ventilator Challenge involved engineering students and alumni from Ghana and Mozambique challenged to design prototype mechanical ventilator solutions, which could be easily manufactured at scale and help to address the needs of COVID-19 patients. When the competition started there were just 34 ventilators in Mozambique and 75 in Ghana.
Sixteen teams comprising 56 male and female engineers took up the challenge with five teams based in Mozambique and nine from Ghana. The winning concept will now be developed and made by Siemens.
Professor Williams said: “This is a great example of a design engineering community coming together to create an innovation for social good. It is important to celebrate the significance of design and innovation. These young professionals have proposed some great ideas, demonstrating collective ingenuity and creativity.”
“The standard of the designs was exceptional. These young people have really demonstrated what can be achieved through working collaboratively and using their engineering skills to solve a real and pressing challenge. Congratulations to everyone involved.”
The international judging team of medical and engineering experts were from across the globe.
Field Ready was launched in 2015 in Ghana, and in Mozambique in 2019.
About Cranfield University
Cranfield University is a specialist postgraduate university that is a global leader for education and transformational research in technology and management.
