With the support of Gaurav Nanajkar and Pawel Nycz, both PhD students from the Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, engineering student Yusuf Bilesanmi has won the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation's One to Watch award for his low-cost ventilator, ShiVent.

ShiVent was created by Yusuf Bilesanmi, Ricardo Nascimento, Dr Yusuf Shittu, Gaurav Nanajkar and Pawel Nycz, and has been designed with four key features:

1. Simple to use – by the average health workers and takes only 30 minutes of training
2. Low-Cost – can be produced at a very small fraction of the price of the average ventilator
3. Non-Electric – making it suitable for hospital settings with unreliable power
4. Oxygen-Efficient – requiring almost as little as a third of the average oxygen consumption of High Flow Oxygen systems

It has been tested at Loughborough’s National Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine (NCSEM) and the Leicester Royal Infirmary Hospital, and has also had a preliminary clinical functionality test at Glenfield Hospital.

Yusuf Bilesanmi was one of 12 innovators who pitched their ideas to a live online audience who voted for the design which showed the most promise and potential for impact.

He received a £5,000 prize from the Royal Academy of Engineering which organises the competition.

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