Two Tshwane University of Technology students participated in the Dubai Global Grad Show, to address COVID-19 Issues!
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (April 22, 2020) – A year-round social impact innovation programme for graduate students across the world, Global Grad Show, held in partnership with Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), and supported by A.R.M. Holding and Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, has received entries from 125 universities in 40 countries during the application phase of its initiative addressing the collateral issues of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Created as a response to the Coronavirus outbreak, the COVID-19 open call invited Global Grad Show’s community of over 260 universities to put forward solutions to the escalating challenges faced by people, communities and governments across the world and the initiative received 390 applications between March 16 and April 2, 2020.
Applications were evaluated by a jury of senior representatives from 4 leading private and public organisations in Dubai: ICD, A.R.M. Holding, Wamda and the Art Dubai Group, whose inputs will inform the next assessment phase. For the next phase, Global Grad Show will engage with the students and professors behind these applications to analyse their development requirements, with a view to identify proposals that can be supported towards testing and implementation.
The creator(s) of any selected proposal will be awarded the tuition fee of their current studies, or equivalent scholarship for the department of selected professor(s) along with support for concept development and business building.
“It is extremely encouraging to see, in critical times such as this, that one of Dubai’s own homegrown initiatives calls on to the world to come together and find solutions for current and future problems posed by the spread of COVID-19. Global Grad Show has been one of the first to put forward such a proactive initiative, receiving a multitude of incredible proposals by young, brilliant minds from around the world. This initiative and the rapid response it received shows the importance and impact of human creativity and humanity selflessly coming together to provide collective solutions to combat obstacles, no matter how large. Dubai Culture, together with its partners, will continue to support and nurture this important initiative, and to do what we can to see our community thrive through this current crisis.” said Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority.
The proposals engaged disciplines varying from medical engineering to game design. They focused on problems with different degrees of urgency, and on solutions with varying implementation complexity and horizon: from critical medical PPE currently out of stock around the world to public policies to prepare communities for future disease outbreaks.
Below are the two concepts, submitted by Tshwane University of Technology students:
Wheeler Hub – Food trucks on the move
How to support the street food movement while keeping citizens safe? Wheeler Hub projects puts food trucks at the community’s service, providing self-isolated people the opportunity to shop from right outside their homes, from repurposed food trucks. It also enables these vendors to stay in business, by becoming a mobile seller of food and other household necessities. By Denzill Bothma, Tshwane University of Technology
Micro-Mask – A smart mask for uninterrupted protection
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The usual way mobile phones are used can increase the risk of contamination, due to their frequent exposure to surfaces and proximity to the face. Micro-mask repurposes old materials, such as pillowcases and Bluetooth headphones, to create a smart mask. The headphones keep the mask in place and allow users to attend to calls without bringing their phone to their face. By Denzill Bothma, Tshwane University of Technology.
And the three other global concepts:
Foresight – an AI system to monitor patient recovery.
The COVID-19 pandemic has left health systems worldwide struggling with the overwhelming amount of people needing intensive respiratory care, resulting in a challenging environment to monitor and respond to patient deterioration. Foresight is a trained AI system which can constantly process patients’ clinical information, providing an algorithmic distribution of intensive care results, increasing patient turnover, and easing clinical staff workload through a prioritising system. By Third Eye Intelligence team, Imperial College London – UK.
Social Place – using Dubai’s public areas for mental health
Social distancing policies have irrevocably changed the way people use (and will use) public spaces within a city. Project Social Space focuses on repurposing public areas across Dubai to balance the need for outdoor activities in times of social distancing. The purpose is to create public areas for activities that improve physical and mental health, that abide by the rules of safe social interaction. By Alida Bata, Heriot-Watt University – Dubai.
Fresh Tracker – optimising the use of food supplies.
How to help people organize the storage of fresh and pantry items in a convenient and hygienic way? Assisting people to have a more efficient and hygienic way to organise their food stock, project Fresh Tracker offers a set of smart stickers that link to an app, tracking information such as volume, expiration, and purchase date of food items. By Sheng-Hung Lee and Ziyuan Zhu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology – USA
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