Engineering Economics

Project Report
Submitted by- Aakash Soni(2K19/EC/004)
Aastik(2K19/EC/005)

----Topic----
Engineering as a response to COVID 19 Pandemic

Delhi Technological University (DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

ENGINEERING)

DELHI TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY (FORMERLY DELHI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING)

SHAHBAD DAULATPUR, BAWANA ROAD, DELHI 110042
 INDEX
TOPIC PAGE NO.
Introduction 1
Ways in which engineers are playing 2
a role in responding to the pandemic
Fields in which Engineers Served 3
during Pandemic
Role of chemical engineering 5
Role of Environmental Engineering 6
Role of Electronics and 7
communication Engineering
Role of Biotechnology Engineering 8
Four Ways Engineering could 10
Change after covid-19 Pandemic
 Introduction
The 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic is an ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019
(COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The
outbreak was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The World Health
Organization declared the outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern
on 30 January 2020 , and recognised it as a pandemic on 11 March 2020.

As of 26 April 2020 , more than 2.89 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported in 185
countries and territories, resulting in more than 203.000 deaths. More than 822,000 people
have recovered

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, it is straining medical systems and
supplies, and changing daily life as people practice social distancing, schools close, and
organizations tell their employees to work from home.

Medical professionals are on the frontlines in the fight against COVID-19 as they care for
patients and work to create a vaccine.

A pandemic can also increase the pressure on health care systems by raising the demand for
certain treatments

These unprecedented times have left other professionals wondering what they can do.How
can they contribute to help society through this pandemic.
chemical engineers are joining the rest of the scientific community to respond to the COVID
−19 challenges.
 Ways in which engineers are playing a role in
responding to the pandemic.

The genetic structure of the virus [SARS-CoV-2] was sequenced within weeks of
its discovery, and it was done with the help of both scientists and engineers.
Optical, electrical, mechanical, computer, and chemical engineers were all
involved in making that possible.

Another area where engineers are playing a role is in the scale-up of therapeutics
and vaccines. Scientists are discovering the vaccines — that’s a scientific task,
though there’s also engineering in it —but when you go from making 100 doses to
a billion doses, that’s a huge engineering challenge. The same is true for
manufacturing therapeutics. Engineers are working on that right now.

Engineers are also working on maintaining the integrity of the supply chain —
getting equipment such as masks to where they’re needed, and getting the right
chemicals together to make vaccines and therapeutics, and those come from all
over the world.

We’ve also applied artificial intelligence and machine learning to facilitate the
rapid development of therapeutics and vaccines. Artificial intelligence processes a
lot of information to identify promising routes to therapeutic interventions. For
example, what drugs could be used to prevent the antigens on the outside of the
virus — which allow the virus into your cells — from getting into cells.

And engineering has allowed telework. If this had happened 20 years ago, where
would we be.We would not be communicating with each other like this.
Broadband, wireless communication, 5G, Zoom, and other platforms — all of
these technologies have been elevated by this pandemic.

As a final example, engineers are modelling the transport of aerosol droplets as it

relates to transmission of the coronavirus between two individuals and among
groups, so that effective countermeasures such as enhanced ventilation can be
taken.
Fields in which Engineers Served during Pandemic
Producing face shields and ventilators
With the wide range of engineering disciplines, examples abound of how engineers’ research
can help during a pandemic. For example, Andrew Trivet from Sustainable Design
Engineering at UPEI, along with his colleagues, is conducting conducting research to adapt a
hand-held, portable technology to detect whether someone carries the coronavirus that causes
COVID-19. E.g
Dionne Aleman, engineering professor at the University of Toronto, has modelled pandemic
spread.
And still other engineers and engineering students at higher education institutions across
Canada and around the world are rallying to answer the urgent calls from medical
professionals for more ventilators, masks, shields, and other protective equipment.

An online community called HelpfulEngineering.org has quickly popped up to share ideas

and designs that can be turned into prototypes anywhere in the world where there is a
demand.
For example, the Richard L’Abbé Makerspace at the University of Ottawa is just one of many
such facilities at higher education institutions across Canada currently producing protective
equipment for healthcare workers and others.

Enabling work from home and maintaining essential services

While medical professionals care for those infected with COVID-19, the rest of the country
has a responsibility to prevent further spread of the virus by practicing social distancing. This
means that schools have closed, and many non-essential businesses and organizations have
told their employees to work from home if they can. Yet many engineers continue to ensure
that essential services are maintained.

“We still need sanitation, we need clean water, we need power distributed to our homes as
we’re going online and staying in touch with our families and friends,” Sterling describes as
she reflects on the comments she received on her LinkedIn post. Engineers are central to a lot
of this infrastructure, she explains.

For example, computer, software, electrical, and other engineers are working to ensure that
networks are able to accommodate the massive increase in Canadians working from home
over the past few weeks.

“Everybody’s trying to do that and that leverages the internet and the infrastructure that we
have in place,” says Chris Zinck, President of Zinck Computer Group Limited in Dartmouth,
NS, and an Engineers Canada Board Director. “Engineers built that.”
Zinck’s company provides small business IT services from custom software to installing
workstations and network services. He said that he and his colleagues have been going “flat
out” since their clients began to instruct their employees to work from home earlier this
month, equipping them with the infrastructure necessary to triple, or sometimes quadruple,
the number of people working remotely.

Communications infrastructure engineers are similarly likely working to add capacity

nationwide, he says.

“That keeps the economy going. Imagine if people went home and didn’t work.It’s a lifeline
to keep people going.”

Protecting the public

Engineers can support hospitals and protect patients and medical and healthcare staff, by
adapting practices and protocols to respond to and manage the transmission of COVID-19.
This includes limiting the risk of transmission at multiple points in the system, for example:
• Environmental decontamination
• Personal and respiratory protective equipment
• hand hygiene
• Environmental design

Sterling is sure that engineers will have a role to play in longer-term considerations as well,
once the COVID-19 pandemic is over. Engineers and others will look at the lessons learned
during this pandemic and reflect on how we can be better prepared should another pandemic
occur.

Known as the Badger Seal, the mask fitter is a soft, adjustable “frame” with elastic worn either
as ear loops or behind the head. With readily available materials, such as elastic cord, foam wire
or pipe cleaners, the fitter is easy to make at home in minutes. When worn over non-medical-
grade disposable masks, the Badger Seal significantly improves the masks’ filtration
performance, according to research conducted by Scott Sanders and David Rothamer, UW–
Madison professors of mechanical engineering and experts in measuring gases and particles in
internal combustion engine processes.

Ultimately, the role for engineers during a pandemic is the same as it is at any other time, as
is enshrined in their professional obligation: how to best protect the public. Different types of
engineers have different skill sets and will do that in different ways.

We know very well that this sort of crisis will define our generation. Whether it’s the
ventilator, or the shield, it’s the little piece that we can do to help. I’m sure that others can do
many things. We all need to look at our skill sets and figure out what we can
 Role of Chemical Engineer’s

 Research and Development

Small Antiviral Agents and Vaccines for COVID- 19 and Related Human
Coronavirus Diseases, Developing personal protecting equipment’s (PPEs).

 Analysis, modelling and designing of protection masks (aerosol, bacterial contaminants).

 Application of 3D printing technologies to mask, Designn of face protecting shields
design of medical oxygenators for hospitals, individuals (Oxygen Enriched air).

 Manufacturing Sector

 Manufacturing of vaccines, medicine.

 Manufacturing of sanitizers, Hand wash, soaps, disinfectants etc.
 Production of polymers for personal protecting equipment’s (PPEs).
 Production of ventilator Parts.:
IMI Precision Engineering, a pneumatic motion and fluid control technology company, has
rapidly adapted its Switzerland-based manufacturing capability of an essential valve
component, to help meet increasing and urgent demand for ventilator units.
 Accelerating and scaling up the production of health care products, food supplies etc.
 Manufacturing of rapid covid test kits.
 Production of oxygen cylinders.
 Scale up the production of fabrics.

 Modelling and Simulation

 Modelling and computational methods are being applied to understanding the infectious
disease spreading, optimizing the curve, and learning from the data to m ake predictions on
the pandemic status and to support decisions on allocating the medical resources for
treatment.
 Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a potentially powerful tool in the fight against the COVID −19
pand emic.
 There are six areas where AI can contribute to the fight against COVID-19:
 i) Early warnings and alerts: Blue Dot, HealthMap.
 ii) tracking and prediction: SIR models
 iii) Data dashboards: Microsoft Bing's AI tracker.
 Iv) diagnosis and prognosis:CAD4COVID
 v) treatments, and cures : Google's DeepMind
 vi) Social control.
 Role of Environmental Engineers

 Environmental engineers have limited experience considering traits of

individuals as part of public health protection. For example, as part of the
Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the process for proposing national
primary drinking water regulations that include maximum contaminant
levels should consider “… the effects of the contaminant on the general
population and on groups within the general population such as infants,
children, pregnant women, the elderly, individuals with a history of serious
illness, or other subpopulations that are identified as likely to be at greater
risk of adverse health effects due to exposure to contaminants in drinking
water than the general population.

 Environmental engineering community, COVID-19 represents a major

modern disaster that has resulted in a temporary disruption of sustainable
development. As part of the community of health-care professionals,
environmental engineers are contributing to solutions to the current
pandemic such as treating N95 respirators for emergency reuse (Rockey
et al. 2020) and developing low-cost indoor air cleaners for homes (Eldred
2020).

 Scopes for Environmental Engineers

Environmental engineers have an opportunity to contribute to building back

better as the public health system is improved in the aftermath of the COVID-
19 pandemic. One way to integrate person-centeredness into an improved
public health system is through selection of modeling approaches that capture
the behaviors of individuals (Kelly et al. 2013). For example, agent-based
modeling has been demonstrated for a range of public health applications,
including contamination of water distribution systems (Shafiee and Zechman
2013), evacuating disabled individuals from crowded airports (Manley et al.
2011), and regulating agricultural nitrogen and related impacts on crop
production and water quality (Happy et al. 2011). Agent-based modeling
approaches have been introduced as a tool to improve epidemiology, including
how features of the built environment impact health.
 Role of Electronics and Communication Engineers

 Electronics and Communication Engineering participate a extremely

significant position in providing automated resolutions like infection
supervision, incorporating sensor scheme in a android based smart phone for
early recognition of infection indications like aarogya setu app, sensor-
related sanitizer dispenser, thermal scanner etc. so, utilisation of electronics
components, incorporation with sensors, wifi connectivity, and remote
workability etc are the basic requirements for this epidemic apparatus.
 Individuals with this explicit information are providing, and will provide
appreciably in developing automatic technology in combating against this
type of epidemic. When the World Health Organization (WHO) established
the Corona virus as a deadly disease and immediately several countries have
imposed lockdown process to prevent the spread of this disease. As per a
market study, electronics company await minimum five to six-week
manufactured goods dispatching delay from dealers because of the corona
virus pandemic.

 Along with these difficulties, the electronics engineers have worked in R &
D sectors in combating beside the pandemic and performing as a mainstay
to all the leading staff (Doctors, Nurshing staffs, House keeping staffs,
Health workers, Administration staffs like Ministers etc.). One of the
important techniques of reducing the spread of the infection in common
public areas has been to distantly note the temperature of persons when they
move through selected regions. Different electronics monitoring appliances
came into marketplace to note the temperature of the common public.
Electronics peoples mainly favour infrared rays to calculate the temperature
of a group of persons.
 There are few more appliances that are further complex in operation, like
wearable temperature supervising equipments thermal imaging related
cameras, drones, robots, etc. Basically, each appliance on the forefront to
calculate the temperature of a person with no direct contact. Drone is also
used to monitor social distancing.
Role of Biotechnology engineering in fight against covid-19

 Bioengineering (BE) technology has significant influence on the healthcare

environment. This has grown steadily particularly since the medical practice
has become more technology based. We have tried to assess the impact of
bioengineering in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

 The use of bioengineering principles in healthcare has been evaluated. The

practical implications of these technologies in fighting the current global
health pandemic have been presented. There has been a shared drive
worldwide to harness the advancements of bioengineering to combat
COVID-19. These efforts have ranged from small groups of volunteers to
large scale research and mass production. Together the engineering and
medical fields have worked to address areas of critical need including the
production and delivery of personal protective equipment, ventilators as
well as the creation of a viable vaccine.

 The fight against COVID-19 has helped highlight the work and
contributions of so many professionals in the bioengineering fields who are
working tirelessly to help our health services cope. Their innovation and
ingenuity are paving the way to successfully beat this virus. We must
continue to support these fields as we evolve our health systems to deal with
the challenges of healthcare in the future.
Four Ways Engineering could Change after covid-19 Pandemic

Collaboration

The engineering response to the sudden demands of the coronavirus was inspiring. Whether
building ventilators, making personal protective equipment or creating new hospital capacity,
companies and institutions from across the spectrum came together in a spirit of
collaboration.

Even firms traditionally seen as rivals came together, demonstrating what can be achieved
when looking beyond profit margins.

Collaboration forged new connections that will carry over into the post-pandemic world, said
IMechE member and Oxford professor Mark Thompson, who led the Oxvent ventilator
project. “The crisis has provided the ideal conditions within which an engineering perspective
can flourish, because it provides wider adoption of the supportive and collaborative principles
which engineers work by,” he said. “I think everyone will carry forward with them the
experience of how they responded. In that sense it will irrevocably change the way that the
networks are put together.”

Need for speed

Engineers demonstrated their full capacity when restrictions were lifted, creating prototypes
in days and complete devices in weeks. Of course, fast-track routes will be tightened after the
pandemic, but with other huge and pressing challenges – climate change, for example –
governments and regulators have no excuses for constraining work.

“What we’ve achieved in about four or five weeks would normally take about two-and-a-half
years – really quick decision-making, engineering requalification of components, supply-
chain sourcing,” said Sam Turner, chief technology officer for the High Value Manufacturing
Catapult, a leading member of the Ventilator Challenge UK. “It’s an amazing response, and a
great example of how engineers can respond, when some of the barriers are removed, really
quickly.”
Home-working

A Professional Engineering survey found that 18% of respondents reported no impact on

their efficiency while working at home, with a similar number reporting no negative impact
on their ability to perform technical engineering tasks. Engineering companies may well
reflect on this and take the opportunity to maintain home-working for some employees.

New focus

After the pain and suffering caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, governments must take steps
to prevent similar outbreaks. There will be increased demand for engineering that fights,
prevents and treats diseases, such as ventilators, anti-bacterial surfaces, temperature
monitoring devices and other high-tech solutions.

Thanks to the good work already done by many manufacturers to pivot production, some
companies might make a permanent shift towards technology that helps save lives.

References
 https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S2424862221500056

 https://adamasuniversity.ac.in/responsibility-of-electronics-and-
communication-engineers-in-fight-against-covid19-epidemic/

 https://engineerscanada.ca/news-and-events/news/what-role-is-there-for-
engineers-in-pandemic-preparedness-and-response

 https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2020/09/engineering-a-
response-to-the-covid-19-pandemic