A team of three young engineers from Yinson’s Ghana office recently won the Field Ready Ventilator Challenge, an initiative organised as part of Field Ready’s employability programme for engineering students in Ghana, Mozambique and Nigeria. They joined 53 other competing engineers to design a simple, practical, low-cost and scalable ventilator as a positive response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The winning team, who named themselves ‘Team Marvel’, comprised of Patience Nortey, Nelly Appertey and Ishmael Asare. The challenge was judged by 25 engineering and scientific experts from the government, engineering industry and academia from eight countries. The judges were looking for ventilator designs that balanced engineering excellence with medical applicability and manufacturing practicality.

The winning team’s design used a stepper motor to control a retractor belt, which in turn compressed an Ambu bag – a proposal which the judges deemed to match all three judging criteria best amongst all the other submissions. The next step forward for the team is to refine the design and to manufacture a prototype.

Ms Patience Nortey, a member of winning team, Marvel, said: “We saw an opportunity to contribute our engineering skills to help solve a real need in our world today. Winning the competition is a testament to our hard work, collaboration and diligence. It is absolutely the best feeling ever!”