JamVent - Full Intubation Ventilator

A team of researchers, engineers, and clinicians at Imperial College London have developed a MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) compliant full intubation ventilator (JamVent). JamVent is uses generic parts and provides for rapid and mass production. Imperial News Link

JamVent

The software that pairs with the ventilator gives clinicians a familiar software interface to shorten training time.

JamVent - Clinical Interface

Enquires from health organizations, manufacturers, and donors should follow this link.

Diode Bridge (AC to DC) @ Wohl Reach Out Lab Imperial College London

In this lesson, students learn the applications of alternating current (AC) verses direct current (DC) and how to transition from AC to DC.

Students begin by using a variable power supply and an oscilloscope to evaluate their signals in the time domain. In the second part of the lesson students build half wave, full wave, and filtered rectifier circuits. An LED can even be substituted into the circuit to demonstrate one application where DC power is necessary (unless you want a flashing LED). The lesson and worksheet for this activity can be found here.

Full Wave Rectifier built by one of the students (Year 11) at the Wohl Reach Out Lab at Imperial College!

The beauty of this lesson is that students start with AC current, and then use a half wave rectifier to block charge from moving backward. They notice however that they lose half of the energy in the system and that the power supply is not constant. By then building a full wave rectifier they realize they can recover nearly all of the power; however, the supply is not constant. By adding in capacitors of varying size (capacitance) they are then able to smooth the signal into something resembling a DC supply, which is then used to power an LED.

Powering up the LED is certainly the highlight of the lesson for the students.

Voltage - time plots for the different power rectifiers

Ideal Gas Laws, Particle Physics, and Newspaper Engineering @ Wohl Reach Out Lab, Imperial College London

Just taking a quick side step from the world of biotribology to share some fantastic fundamental science that I wish I learned in high school and undergraduate engineering. If anyone is looking to recreate these demos/experiments at home or in the classroom please reach-out to me and I will be happy to assist. 

3 great experiments I wish I did when I was in school!

Ideal Gas Laws: Students learned that as you add volume to a fixed container (glass flask) the pressure increases, and it does so linearly. This is the fundamental study conducted by Boyle more than 300 years ago. See attached slides. *You will notice one of the data sets has a smaller slope than the other three (there is a very good reason for this that we can discuss offline). 

Particle Physics: Students rolled marbles at an object hidden under a cardboard box to determine its size and shape. Rutherford used a similar approach with atomic particles ~100 years ago. 

News Paper Engineering: Students learned the power of geometry when it comes to mechanics. Paper is quite stiff in tension but buckles easily under compression until you provide it with bending resistance. This resistance comes from the geometry of the folded/rolled paper. See attached slides. This activity includes concepts of design, engineering, and project estimation.