The university's research groups in Cuenca are working on a new project to manufacture artificial respiration devices. The initiative started as a contribution to the possible lack of equipment and medical supplies that some health centers in the city and the country could have due to the crisis generated due to the pandemic.

Therefore, students and teachers of the Electronic and Automation Engineering, Electricity and Mechatronics Engineering undergraduate programs have created a prototype of an artificial respirator, which is printed in 3D, and uses PETG as a base, an element that is characterized by its resistance and by allowing disinfection after use.

The structure of the respirator is integrated with an AMBU bag, a pressure device that helps patients breathe, and controls the flow of oxygenation in the lungs; the device is aimed to contribute to the treatment of patients who have breathing difficulties.

The device complies with all medical requirements, as it has successfully passed the first mechanical tests, errors that compromise the safety and integrity of the patient have been ruled out, even when it is used for long periods of time. The next step is to the test it with artificial lungs, where it will be possible to check whether the flow of oxygen entering the body is adequate.

Professors Marco Amaya, Marco Carpio, Luis Calle, Julio Zambrano and student Kevin Mosquera, members of the Interaction, Robotics and Automation Research Group (GIIRA) and the Simulation, Optimization and Decision Making Research Group (GID-STD) have worked on the project; doctors from Cuenca have also joined this proposal.

Professors and students in the university have also built face masks and two projects of artificial respirators