The PhD researcher 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.
The non-electric ShiVent system was created to allow non-specialised workers to treat patients with coronavirus.
The team - Yusuf Bilesanmi, Ricardo Nascimento, Dr Yusuf Shittu, Gaurav Nanajkar and Pawel Nycz - designed the ventilator with four key features:
- Simple to use – by the average health workers and takes only 30 minutes of training
- Low-Cost – can be produced at a very small fraction of the price of the average ventilator
- Non-Electric – making it suitable for hospital settings with unreliable power
- Oxygen-Efficient – requiring almost as little as a third of the average oxygen consumption of High Flow Oxygen systems
ShiVent has been tested at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ’s National Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine (NCSEM) and the Leicester Royal Infirmary Hospital.
It has also had a preliminary clinical functionality test at Glenfield Hospital.
Speaking about the award, Yusuf (pictured left) said: “I was dumbfounded and super elated. I couldn’t believe we had won.
“It makes all the difference in the work we have done, the support we have received from the º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ community.”
The system works by connecting hospital patients to an existing oxygen source and blends air with the high-flow oxygen supply.
The patient inhales oxygen to fill up the lungs and then exhales into a water column creating back end pressure that keeps their airway open.
It is based on the principles of bubble continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) - a non-invasive ventilator used for new-born babies developed by Dr Yusuf Shittu, of the Nuffield Hospital in Leicester – a co-founder of the ShiVent system.
The other co-founders are Gaurav Nanajkar, Pawel Nycz and Ricardo Nascimento – all from º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ.
ENDS