Rourkela: The oxygen crisis at the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 is still fresh in the country’s collective memory. In its wake, a Rourkela-based student has designed a device called ‘Oxyserve’ that can save around 60% to 70% of medical oxygen.
The innovator, Rupesh Mahore, is a fourth-year integrated MSc student at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela.
According to Rupesh, more than half of medical oxygen is wasted from between the time it leaves the cylinder and exhaled by a patient. He started researching with an aim to stop this wastage. Rupesh’s younger brother, Gundendra Mahore, also joined him in the project.
After several rounds of experiments, the brothers developed a pulse width modulated pulse control oxygen conservation device and named it ‘Oxyserve’. The device uses respiratory sensors and control valves to adjust the flow of oxygen every second as per a patient’s requirement.
In case of a failure in the sensor, the microcontroller has an inbuilt WiFi module that sends data as well as warning signals.
Rupesh’s innovation and research paper was accepted by International Conference on Recent Trends in Science and Technology (ICRTST) 2021. He is now planning to formally apply for a patent before producing the device commercially.
