JKUAT unveils new innovations to support fight against Covid-19

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology has unveiled various innovations to help the Government in combating the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. 

Among the new innovations are two portable solar-powered ventilators that use a 12 voltage battery, a contact tracing application, a digital system that predicts Covid-19 infection trends in Kenya and an automatic solar-powered hand-washing machine.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Victoria Ngumi termed the developments by a multi-disciplinary team of engineers, researchers and innovators as a huge breakthrough in the Country’s anti-coronavirus war.

According to one of the innovators Karanja Kabini, a mechatronics engineer, the ventilators whose materials are locally available have a high reliability and can operate for two weeks without need for maintenance.

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“It has a control panel that can vary the breathing rate, the operator can increase or reduce the amount of oxygen and it may be used by adults and children,” Kabini explained. The gadgets are light and can be easily transported and used at any point of need.

Prof Ngumi says the university’s engineering department has the capacity to produce ten ventilators weekly, which will go a long way to boost the existing shortage in the Country.

The ‘Contact Tracing and Case Management App’ developed by JKUAT students Victor Muthembwa, Boniface Bundi and Crispus Nyaberi will help to identify who, where and when a person gets into contact with a Covid-19 positive individual.

“The App has been upgraded to include triage and case management functions that solve the cumbersome nature of manual records currently being used in most parts of the Country.” Bundi said.

The contact tracing app is described by the researchers as an important asset in the fight against Covid-19 because it is digital and specifically focuses on tracing contacts who use public transport.

The students, in order to demonstrate proof of the concept have already entered into a partnership with Super metro buses which ply the Nairobi-Thika route as well as Kikuyu and Uthiru areas which has been a success and now intend to roll it out Countrywide.

The automated solar-powered hand washing machine is another creative innovation by Pan African University’s Institute for basic Sciences, technology and Innovation (PAUSTI) which is housed at JKUAT and is meant to help the community around Juja and Kiambu County at large to keep off the scourge.

“This is our first prototype and we plan to improve it to include a thermo gun to gauge body temperature among other features before we embark on the patenting process,” Prof Makoha said.

Prof Ngumi is upbeat that the research and production of these innovations and more developments will continue long after coronavirus is contained.