Symptom-trackers and doctor dorms: how universities are fighting Covid-19

Universities are right on the frontline in the battle against coronavirus. They’re loaning the NHS vital medical equipment and facilities, using 3D printers to produce personal protective equipment, researching potential vaccines, and boosting the NHS workforce with fast-tracked medical students and healthcare academics. But these aren’t the only ways they’re contributing. Here are a few of the unexpected ways in which universities are using their research and resources to improve people’s lives.

The lack of ventilators is one of the biggest challenges facing the health system during the coronavirus epidemic. But not all patients need a ventilator – some can be treated with a breathing aid. University College London’s (UCL) engineering academics have collaborated with Formula One to rapidly develop a device that means ventilators can be saved for those who need them most.

.....Robot gallery tours

Bristol Robotics Laboratory, the UK’s biggest robotics centre, is usually the place scientists go to ponder the complex questions behind bioengineering. But it’s now deploying its two-wheeled video-conferencing robot to give people real-time art exhibition tours at Hastings Contemporary, an art gallery that’s been closed due to coronavirus.