A unique low-cost, non-electric ventilator built by a team of engineers from Loughborough University has won a Royal Academy of Engineering award.

The ShiVent system was created to allow non-specialised workers to treat patients with coronavirus.

It won the ‘One-to-watch award’ at the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, hosted by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

ShiVent has been tested at Loughborough’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.

Next month, a shipment of five units is being sent to Lagos, Nigeria, with more ventilators heading for Pune, in India, shortly after.

One of the designers Yusuf Bilesanmi, a Nigerian national who enrolled for his PhD in Loughborough in 2019, said: “ShiVent is designed for under-resourced areas where mechanical ventilators are scarce and expensive, with unreliable electricity supply and limited specialist knowledge”.

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