KNUST Develops Ventilator to Support COVID-19 Care and Management

In early 2017, the Department of Computer Engineering of KNUST and the International Business Ventures Group of the Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech) in the United States of America jointly started a project with the objective to boost health service delivery for patients with breathing deficiencies and disorders, by designing and implementing inexpensive but effective ventilators. This cooperative effort is headed on the KNUST side by Professor Kwame Osei Boateng (the then Dean of the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering), with Dr. Yacub Ahmed (the then Coordinator of the Biomedical Engineering programme) as the students’ project supervisor.

Michigan Tech developed a prototype ventilator dubbed ‘IBV Ventilator’ and later in 2017, a KNUST student project succeeded in coming up with another prototype, the ‘KNUST Ventilator’. The group consisted of six (6) final-year project students of the Department; Akwasi Darkwah Akwaboah, Josephine Owusu-Akyaw, Ayesha Tiwaa Ahmad, Isaac Kumi-Koduah, Stephen Kwabena Asante and Afua Boakyewaa Appiah,

The original prototype had configured the basic pneumatic system with an arduino-based circuitry as the embedded control subsystem. The inclusion of the single-board computer, however, was causing significant heat generation that made usage over long periods a concern. The prototype being developed is an improvement of the original design and would address the issue of significant heat generation.

Lack of funding stalled further development till Ghana joined the rest of the world to fight the COVID-19 disease. Currently a team of lecturers has been put together under the leadership of Prof. Kwame Osei Boateng (the current Director of the KNUST Institute of Distance Learning), to prepare the prototype for further development. As a first step the team has optimised the control circuitry by among other things, replacing the arduino board with the atmega microcontroller chip. This has reduced heating significantly.

At a press briefing held on 23rd April, 2020, Prof. Boateng said as part of enhancements to the project, the team was considering the use of external signals from the muscles of the conscious patient, as a feedback signal to trigger the ventilator into operation

Prof. Mark Adom-Asamoah, Provost of the College of Engineering, KNUST, said that breathing was an essential human function necessary for the sustenance of life, and that unfortunately millions who grapple with breathing deficiencies were usually unable to access or afford this care. This, he said, was due to the expensive nature of the few available ventilators, which were even bulky in nature.

Prof. Adom-Asamoah was hopeful that after clinical testing, the equipment would be produced on a larger scale for the benefit of the country.

Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister for Information, in Ghana tweeted that, “It’s exciting to note that researchers @KNUSTGH have announced the local production of a local ventilator. In the coming days we will have to engage and get the necessary approvals to procure and use some if need be. Well done guys.”