IIT Bombay makes 15,000 face masks and released a DIY video on mask making

• A team at the Ignition Lab of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay created 15,000 face masks, to battle the Coronavirus pandemic.
  
• They have created DIY (do-it-yourself) masks using just bedsheets and sewing machines.
  
• They supplied nearly 13,000 masks to policemen, hospitals and other medical workers, who are at the forefront to battle Coronavirus.
  
• The team is now working to develop other solutions like mask sterilizers that use ultraviolet light, face shields for PPE (personal protective gears) kits, bed veils and aerosol box to disinfect doctors.

A team at the Ignition Lab of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay created 15,000 face masks, amid the growing Coronavirus pandemic. To overcome the shortage of masks in India, they also created DIY (do-it-yourself) videos that help create masks using bed sheets and sewing machines.

“We standardized the process of mask making, and our team has created DIY videos in nine languages” said Prof Kumaresan, who is coordinating the project. He heads the Ignition Lab, which is part of Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship at IIT Bombay.

As the demand for face masks surged, the team at IIT partnered with a local garment company Ecostyle to ramp up the production. “Our tailors were anyway staying back in the factory itself, and this has given them something meaningful to do in the current situation,” Jaya Chakravarthy, founder of Ecostyle said.

“The joint team coordinated the supply chain and distributed nearly 2000 masks to IIT security, IIT Hospital, campus residents and local shop-keepers,” the institute said in a statement.

The first lot of 150 masks were given to the faculty, office staff and those workers who could not get it from medical shops, given the shortage. They also supplied nearly 13,000 masks to policemen, hospitals and other medical workers.

The team is now working to develop other solutions like mask sterilizers that use ultraviolet light, face shields for PPE (personal protective gears) kits, bed veils and erosol boxes to disinfect doctors.

Falcon Labs and Augle AIare, other IIT-incubated startup solutions are creating software tools for detection, tracking and localization of patients even in densely populated areas. JanYu Technologies is developing a robotic smart trolley. “These technological weapons promise to make the battle a little easier for the front-line warriors of COVID pandemic,” the institute said.

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