University of Florida Tackles COVID-19 With High-Tech Devices

When COVID-19 shut down the country in the spring, some of the brightest engineering minds at the University of Florida’s Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World went to work.

“We felt an obligation to rise to the occasion and use our research expertise and creativity,” says institute director, Swarup Bhunia, Ph.D. It was a call to arms, of sorts, urging staff and students to invent wearable, smart, connected devices to fight this virus and future ones.

“These devices can help monitor, detect, and mitigate the spread of the disease,” says Bhunia.

The first device is called ADAPT smart mask. A sensor in the mask detects particles the size of coronavirus droplets. It releases water mist that not only blows virus-laden droplets away but clings to the airborne virus, causing the particles to fall to the ground. The second device, TRIDENT smart band, aims to catch temperature spikes that are frequent, early indicators of coronavirus.

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