2:00pm-3:00pm on Thursday 31 March
Times shown are in GMT (UTC +0) up to the 26th March. For events on or after 27th March times are in BST (UTC +1).
Online
Join us for a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse of scientists and engineers working in laboratories at the Universities of Cambridge and Bahir Dar in Ethiopia to co-create a low-cost, high-quality oxygen concentrator that works well in tough environmental circumstances and low-resource clinical settings.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, OVSI was formed. OVSI is a collaboration of academics, engineers, intensive care medics, innovators and industry partners from across Africa and the UK that evolved an initial idea proposed at the University of Cambridge in March 2020.
In collaboration with the Centre for Global Equality, and industry partner Cambridge Precision Engineering, the Cambridge-Ethiopia design team is developing a prototype that will be demonstrated during this event.
The session will include live online lab tours in both countries, pre-recorded videos and a live panel Q&A.
The event builds upon The OVSI story at last year’s Cambridge Festival, which tracked OVSI’s evolution for the twelve months following its inception, and highlighted the increasing significance of the oxygen concentrator component of the system. The focus of this event will be the design, development and manufacture of an oxygen concentrator prototype,
A pre-recorded presentation will feature interviews with key OVSI members in Cambridge and Ethiopia, followed by live online tours of the labs and workshops where the teams operate. Particular focus will be paid to the unique challenges that were faced in the two contrasting environments, and the use of rapid prototyping techniques such as 3D Printing.
This will be followed by a panel discussion between representatives from the Universities of Cambridge and Bahir Dar, along with industry and civil society consortium members from the Cambridge Cluster - Cambridge Precision Engineering and the Centre for Global Equality. There will be plenty of time for live Q&A so that members of the public can ask questions of the panellists.
This event is organised by the Centre for Global Equality in collaboration with the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB), University of Cambridge.
Hosts: Dr Lara Allen and Andrew Birley (The Centre for Global Equality Ltd)
