The Infant Heart Monitor is being developed for worldwide use in countries of all economic status. As such, the prominent points of focus in our design are as follow:

A monitor that is ..

After many physical and simulated revisions, a prototype of the monitor has been built and is currently being debugged by the team. Following error-free lab trials during the Fall of 2007 the device will be tested on infants in a local health care facility under doctor supervision before being sent to a student group at a university in Kamasi for direct testing. Through the feedback of doctors and midwives in Kamasi the monitor will be revised for the final design before implementation in Ghana in the summer semester of 2008 by members of our team.

Typically hospitals maintain sufficient numbers of ventilators and other medical equipment to meet current health care demands. However, a rapid influx of patients in hospitals could easily result from disasters such as mass casualty incidents or pandemics. In the United States, a profound need for ventilator stockpiles has been identified in order to prepare for such events. Currently there are about 105,000 ventilators functioning in hospitals nationwide with a national stockpile of about 6,000 ventilators. It has been projected that more than 700,000 ventilators would be needed in case of a national flu epidemic. Although the evidence for the increase of ventilator stockpiles in hospitals nationwide is very clear, the demand has not been met.

Currently, the high cost of most ventilators prevents hospitals from stockpiling these machines. In addition, lower cost alternatives lack the necessary safety features needed to appropriately care for patients during emergency situations. In an effort to improve the capabilities and safety of low-cost ventilators, our team will design a simple and reliable ventilator to be stockpiled to meet the needs in emergency situations.

The ventilator being designed must easily and safely ventilate individuals in any environment while still meeting the standards set by respiratory therapists worldwide. Our current design will seek to meet the following constraints:

• Low cost (< $1000)
• Reliability
• Proper safety features
• Ease of use
• Easily stockpiled
  • Small size
  • Portable
• Long-term ventilation capabilities

Our aim is to create a ventilator that can compete with current units that financially unfeasible to stockpile. Our design incorporates the following features:

• Pneumatically powered
  • High pressure air source
• Electrically controlled
  • Microcontroller control
  • Various sensors and actuated valves
• High and low pressure safety alarms
• Easy to use controls and user interface

With the help and consultation from local respiratory therapists and the hard work of our team of engineers we are optimistic about the progress of our project. Although still in the developmental stage, we are determined to have a working prototype by the end of 2008. Further testing of our ventilator will be conducted at the local health facility Portage Health Systems under the supervision of respiratory therapists and trained personnel. It is the team’s goal to have a final product ready to meet the ventilator demand of hospitals worldwide by 2009.

Interested in Joining?

As with all student enterprises, new student engineers are needed to continue to the progress and success of the projects at hand. If you are interested in joining the ventilator team and contributing to the project please contact Keith Magic kwmagic@mtu.edu

As the world expands further into a global economy, the business majors of International Business Ventures set out to explore the paths and opportunities that have opened up to them. Their mission is to guide the enterprise toward the companies and people of the world.

In the United States approximately 127 million adults are overweight and 60 million of those are classified as obese. One of the major reasons is due to the lack of a healthy alternative to fast food. People of all ages and backgrounds have substituted unhealthy fast food for home cooked meals because it is cheap and easy to get.

To address this problem, a team of IBV members composed a business plan for Whole Foods Market to start up a new healthy quick service restaurant. Whole Foods Market can enter this emerging market as the organic source that will secure a part of the ever growing quick service market. The idea is to come up with a concept that looks at the best interests of consumers that will appeal to all Americans.