Focus: Covid-19 Projects

IN 2020, HUMBER COLLEGE played a vital role in addressing some of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic through funding received of nearly $150K for two projects under the NSERC College and Community Innovation Program— Applied Research Rapid Response to Covid-19 Program. This funding opportunity leveraged the expertise and infrastructure in Humber College to rapidly mobilize support and expertise related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The following two projects were approved under this program.

Project 1: Canadian Hospital Simulator for Management of COVID-19 Cases and Contact Tracing

Principal Investigator: Shahdad Shariatmadari

Partner: Intransigence Corporation

Total Project Value: $73,119

Project Synopsis

The simulator makes use of several parameters which are adjustable by hospital staff in making these predictions. Using the data from the simulator, hospital administrators can manage staffing needs (nurses, physicians) and equipment requirements (masks, ventilators, ICU beds, etc.) on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The project code is written in Python with an interactive web module for public healthcare administrators to prepare their resources to deal with COVID-19 cases. The epidemiological model can be viewed on the COVID-19 Simulator.

“The pandemic has heightened an ‘allhands-on-deck approach’ and brought us all together. It is an honour to work with a fantastic industry partner like Intransigense Corp. and their team and engage our grads/students in this project. So proud of the outcomes so far, and more to be achieved.”

“Research, to me, is about constantly improving and building on something discovered earlier, making it better, making it usable and continuously searching and researching.”

Shahdad Shariatmadari, Professor, Faculty of Applied Sciences & Technology

Shahdad Shariatmadari, Professor, Faculty of Applied Sciences & Technology

Project 2: A scalable hand sanitizing sensing solution: IoT enabled hand sanitizer and soap dispensers

Principal Investigator: Timothy Wong, PhD.

Partner: Mero Technologies Inc.

Total Project Value: $74,290

Other Faculty members involved: Sandro Zaccolo

Project Synopsis

Mero is a technology innovator in the facility management automation industry, serving commercial properties with wireless IoT devices that monitor the metrics behind washroom use and waste. With the recent spread of the COVID-19 virus, hand sanitizer use is at an all-time high. For commercial properties to sustainably provide sanitization to the public, monitoring their supply is a must. With Mero’s sensing technology, this process is streamlined and readily available, but some refinement of the product remains.

This grant has enabled Mero to develop a scalable, repeatable retrofit solution to incorporate their sensors into existing hand sanitizer and soap dispensers regardless of the dispenser vendor and create the packaging and training manuals necessary for commercial use. This technology will help keep essential workplaces, communities, and cities safe during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. “Students who are involved in research will get hired very quickly.”

I am anticipating success with the project. Humber research encourages the scientific community to come up with ideas to build industry collaborations and assists in acquiring funds to support such initiatives at FAST.

Timothy Wong, PhD., Professor, Faculty of Applied Sciences & Technology