COVID-19 Research Projects at Humber

ANTICIPATING THE NEED FOR NEW innovations as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Humber researchers quickly got to work. In a short time, they were able to identify unique issues that were caused by the pandemic, and work on ideas that would have a positive impact on our communities. After the launch of NSERC’s Rapid Response to COVID-19 Fund, Humber’s Office of Research & Innovation received funding for several projects to improve COVID-19 outcomes.

Smart hand sanitizer and soap dispensers to improve public health

Hand sanitizer is seeing widespread use as we continue to battle COVID-19. For businesses to provide sustainable sanitization, they need to monitor sanitizer dispensers. Empty sanitizer dispensers promote the virus’s spread and cause further infections within communities. To address this challenge, Humber partnered with Mero Technologies Inc.—a technology innovator in the facility-management automation industry—to create a monitoring solution using Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

The Team

Dr. Tim Wong, PhD—Professor, Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology (FAST)—is the Principal Investigator on this project, providing over 30 years of experience in networking, security, IoT, cloud computing, enterprise software and mobile devices. He oversaw the project, leading the development and workflow optimization challenges alongside Co-Investigator Sandro Zaccolo, who guided multiple student research assistants.

Mero Technologies Inc. is a technology innovator in the facility-management automation industry, serving commercial properties by providing analytics using small, flexible wireless IoT devices that monitor the metrics behind washroom use and waste.

Project Details

The primary objective for this project was to develop a universal IoT sensor that can alert the right people to refill dispensers in a timely manner. These sensors need to have the capability to retrofit existing hand sanitizers and soap dispensers, be user friendly and require easy installation.

One of the challenges the Humber team helped Mero overcome was with the pairing time of the IoT devices to backend data collection and analytics. Mero needed help to adapt their latest sensor design for rapid deployment, either as a standalone or retrofit for existing units. Currently, Mero’s sensor works with one dispenser type, and the work being done with this project will develop a universal sensor and adapter. This retrofit sensor solution will be able to notify cleaning crews when dispensers are low. It has the potential to provide a simple, inexpensive, and effective option for facility managers.

How did they do it?

The Mero and Humber team worked remotely throughout this project. Regular virtual update meetings supported progress, feedback, and enabled the team to troubleshoot issues.

Students at work

Students had remote access to a wide range of design software and continuous mentorship from the research leads. Researchers at Humber lead students in learning IoT and proprietary Mero technologies, and they were able to do the R&D to help create a seamless product experience.

Impact

Hand sanitizers help curb the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses, and the upkeep of sanitation stations is essential for sustainable public health outcomes. It’s anticipated that hand sanitation systems will continue to be in high demand post-pandemic, and this technology could help put people at ease and streamline the refilling process. The project has the potential to help keep essential workplaces, communities, and cities safe well into the future.

Anticipating resource needs for COVID-19 cases

A major pandemic concern is the continued stress on public healthcare systems. Given the high likelihood of hospitalization for COVID-19 cases, ward and intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy rates rose to unprecedented levels. Even though the virus can seem unpredictable, Humber researchers have paired with Intransigense Technologies to create a mathematical simulator predicting the resources a hospital requires to manage existing and expected COVID-19 cases.

The Team

Shahdad Shariatmadari—Professor and Program Coordinator, Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology (FAST)—was the Principal Investigator on this project, bringing over 10 years of experience in the IT industry as a software developer, web developer and database administrator. Shahdad guided research assistants and worked with the industry partner to accomplish the project plan’s milestones.

Intransigense implements real-time analytics engines to help organizations make better business decisions and have a competitive edge, specializing in AI-powered visualization tools and data analytics. Their focus is to engage with customers proactively, stating that simply providing a product and service is not enough in today’s competitive world.

Project Details

Local health authorities equipped with simulation tools can predict their COVID-19 cases accurately and prepare as necessary; underpreparedness can have dire consequences. It is important for forecasting to consider municipal-level data when building a predictive model like this. These data include (but aren’t limited to): number of positive cases, tests administered, health system capacity in ward and ICU beds, and the epidemiological factors of COVID-19 such as the basic reproduction number, incubation and infectious periods.

How did they do it?

The objective of the project was to create a hospital resource prediction software—or simulator—that health authorities can use to predict the resources and forecast the demand for ward and ICU beds. The simulator makes use of several parameters which are adjustable by hospital staff to make predictions more accurately. 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.

Students at Work

Student researchers were responsible for data engineering and focused on the front-end web user interface; creating charts, widgets, and other dashboards on the web interface. They have designed the current software for a generic hospital, and the Canadian system required changes to be made under the direction of the company’s experts.

Impact

A close monitoring of resources is important to improve health outcomes of COVID-19 patients. It is anticipated that hospitals will need to closely monitor their resources as the COVID-19 restrictions relax. The pandemic has continuously challenged our healthcare systems, and leaders must make time-sensitive and critical decisions about resource allocations. This simulation tool can help them make informed decisions and prepare for capacity strain, aiding clinical operations and the staff to identify when hospital resources would be saturated.

Communications in the time of COVID-19

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, effective communication was necessary in conveying the severity of the virus. As government regulations prevented businesses from opening, and in-person contact became something to fear, there was no set template for communicating these unusual circumstances. In response to this, a team of Humber researchers studied various communication efforts from a variety of businesses to determine how effective that communication was.

The Team

The lead on this project is Public Relations professor, Audrey Wubbenhorst. Audrey brings over a dozen years of communications experience and has served on several boards including the National Diabetes Trust (NDT), Central LHIN, Build Toronto, Toronto Community Housing Corporation and Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter. Her research assistants included her students Robert Van Horne and Nikita Ravi.

This project was funded internally through Humber’s Office of Research and Innovation.

Project Details

Not only is this study a great snapshot of the COVID-19 pandemic but it can also serve as a best practice for what makes an effective crisis communications strategy. When lockdown regulations began in March of 2020, the communications field was going into unchartered territory. As paranoia and fear were at an all-time high, there were few templates to help guide organizations through the crisis. These resources serve as a perfect reference point to base a business’s communications strategy on and can help us be more mindful of how we disseminate information through public channels.

How Did They Do It?

The team was able to analyze positive responses such as Seasons Retirement Communities’ commitment to safety and Ottawa-based restaurant Atelier’s drivethru tasting menu. Negative responses included EB Games’ refusal to close and Pusteri’s Fine Foods price gouging on cleaning products. Also present in the OERs is a summary of controversial celebrity responses to the pandemic and the image challenges of cleaning companies like Lysol and Clorox.

Students at work

The student research assistants helped craft case studies that contain a base summary outlining the business, a timeline of important events for each business, and how they were impacted by government. The studies go into depth about the specific COVID-19 communications the business made during the pandemic and analyzes the context and public response around them. Part of the OERs includes teaching notes with probing topics for further discussion.

Impact

The goal for this project was to create open educational resources (OERs) for educators to use in their classrooms to study responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each case study was created in real-time and was published on the COVID-19 Communications website (https://covid19communications.ca/).