Chalk this up to the positive impulse being shown by many in HPC to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Nvidia chief scientist Bill Dally – heeding a charge from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to company leaders to look for creative ways to fight the pandemic – developed and released an open-source design for a ventilator that’s made from about $400 worth of components, vastly less than the many thousands of dollars usually required.
Dally’s plans are discussed in a paper available on the Stanford University website. Appropriate ventilators for use by COVID-19 patients were in short supply at the start of the pandemic. Since then some familiar names like GM have been mobilized to manufacture ventilators.
“I hope that we don’t get so many people sick that we run out of ventilators, but I want to make sure if we do, something like this is ready,” said Dally, quoted in an article describing his work on the Nvidia website.
Dally’s ventilator is built around just two easily sourced, key components – a proportional solenoid valve and a microcontroller to regulate the flow of gas through the valve to the patient. Dally relied on contacts from many domains including input from Dr. Andrew Moore, a chief resident at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Dally turned to Dr. David Gaba, an expert in immersive and simulation-based learning, to test the device’s capabilities.
Here’s an excerpt from the Nvidia article:
“Dally reports he can bolt the device’s pneumatic components together in 5 minutes. The entire ventilator can be attached to a simple display and slid into a compact Pelican carrying case. It provides better care than “bag squeezer” emergency ventilators because it precisely regulates flow, pressure, and volume, Dally says. It also uses fewer parts and less power, and it’s lower cost. It includes sensors that accurately meter airflow, compensate for valve inaccuracy, control maximum pressure, enable patient-initiated breathing, and monitor for alarm conditions, among other features.”
Link to article: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2020/05/01/low-cost-open-source-ventilator-nvidia-chief-scientist/
Link to paper: https://op-vent.stanford.edu