A student team from UGM consisting of Muhammad Rizqiansyah (Engineering Physics 2018), Ananda Fikri Nugroho (Engineering Physics 2018), and Devara Zain Al Adid (Electrical Engineering 2018) won the first rank in the National Scientific Writing Competition (LKTI) UNY 2020.
This team composed a paper entitled "Cheap and Reliable Thermal and Humidity-based N95 Mask Disinfection Machine (MEDAMAS)" on the backdrop of the growing need for N95 masks, especially for medical workers.
"The idea is inspired by a journal which stated that N95 masks could be disinfected up to 50 times by thermal and humidity methods," said Rizqiansyah as the team leader.
He also explained, the Covid-19 pandemic caused an increasing demand for N95 masks for medical workers. Thus, it requires a method to disinfect these disposable masks repeatedly without reducing the masks' efficiency. Moreover, the N95 mask can pollute the environment as well because it can be medical waste later.
"We would like to contribute to the third SDGs, which is healthy lives and well-being for all ages," he said.
This competition began with abstracts submission in July, where the teams who were successful in enrolling in the next stages, then asked to submit complete papers. Due to the pandemic conditions that require social restrictions, the team works on an online paper with a division of tasks.
"In creating a full paper, each of us made a design plan from Medamas using inventors for 3D design and KiCAD public source software for the circuit scheme. We plan to use a gas stove for heating because it is quite affordable," said Rizqiansyah.
After papers submission, the ten best works were selected to compete in the final stage, where they were required to submit videos and present their work.
"That was the stage that most of the participants were waiting for. Thanks for the team's hard work for successfully making the UGM Medamas team become ten finalists. Finally, we got the opportunity to present our scientific work online and testified by a professional jury," he explained.
Author: Gloria
Translator: Natasa