Problem The Hackspace, once exclusively synonymous with electronics and model airplane enthusiasts, has grown to become a globally acknowledged hub for social innovation and enterprise. Appealing to an emergent cultural ethos of autonomy and shared knowledge, pop-up hackspaces have taken shape over the past decade in everything from railway arches to city office blocks, boasting […]
Problem A well-known piece of countryside etiquette is to take nothing but photos and leave nothing but footprints. With the coronavirus outbreak this becomes truer than ever – nobody wants to take the virus home with them from a walk, nor leave it behind. A post lockdown world will involve a substantial change in our […]
The T-Pen design features a dongle with a “T” shaped head that allows the user to apply force in 3 axes to an adapter. The concept is for each person to have a T-Pen that is capable of working in adapters placed around a workplace, home, shop etc.. This would allow people to open doors and operate mechanisms without touching a surface someone else may have come into contact with – breaking the COVID-19 transmission path. A lid is also provided to allow the pen to be covered when not in use.
Building on the USB interface, the design can be extended to also allow a pen (standard biro) or pencil to be used. This extends the “upcycle” mantra associated with the USB design, but comes with the penalty of not having any depth control due to the uncertainty surrounding the pen used. The design can be 3D printed in under 10 minutes and cost less than 2p each.
A simple adapter has been developed, that can be rapdily printed using FFF and SLA technologies, to allow someone to use a USB stick to open doors and operate simple mechaisms and break transmission paths of COVID-19.
The simple design, that takes less than 15 minutes to print on our standard 3D printers costs just £0.04 and can take advantage of the old USB sticks people have at home and in the workplace. If the USBs available also have a retracting head, or a cover for the interface, the contact patch can be sealed from the user when not in use.
University buildings (like many other buildings throughout our cities) have many hundreds of users every day, all needing to move through and access a variety of different spaces, each with their own locks and access controls. In a world of social distancing, we need to think about how people move through buildings and access spaces efficiently, while preventing bottlenecks, minimising transmission risks, and still allowing important security and access controls to stay in place.
Several industries have been moving to a working environment involving hot desking. In a post-lockdown, COVID-19 world this poses potential issues with social distancing and transmission paths. This challenge asks how hot desking can be made possible whilst also trying to contain the transmission of COVID-19.
In recent weeks the fight against Covid-19 has seen both an exponential demand for key medical equipment and an array of restrictions imposed on global manufacturing and supply chains, resulting in a debilitating shortage of necessary healthcare provisions and inhibiting the capacity of health services to treat patients with potentially catastrophic consequences. The scale of […]
We have put together a document summarising the MHRA minimum useful specification for an emergency ventilator. This is considered the minimum required level of machine that would be useful to the NHS. The original specification can be found here. The PDS style requirements document can be found here. Access has been opened up so you […]