Young Romanian designer wins MIT competition with smart face mask

Young Romanian designer Ciprian Burzo won a competition by the MIT Pandemic Response CoLab aimed at finding innovative solutions for face coverings and personal protective equipment (PPE). Burzo participated in the contest with a smart face mask prototype that can connect to a smartphone and integrates temperature sensors and a filter ventilation system.

The “Social Mask” contributed by the young Romanian designer can pair with a mobile device application to check the wearer’s proximity to other users and determine the possibility of viral infection, according to Cci.mit.edu. To facilitate the wearing of the mask by allergic people, the face mask would be made of materials like polycarbonate or polypropylene. Further details are available here.

“Connecting the mask with our smartphone is a real option for the future,” Ciprian Burzo said, quoted by The Calvert Journal. “We should know who is infected in our area and get informed on our smartphone about what the biosensor has detected based on surrounding particles. These are just a few of the options that will surely feature in the mask of the future.”

Besides the Romanian designer’s smart face mask, the other winning ideas of the “Reimagining face coverings and PPE challenge” were: sourcing Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) from single-use plastic waste in African landfills to manufacture medical-grade gowns and the Maskarf face mask that started from the idea of using sustainable, lightweight materials to transform face masks into versatile yet functional scarf-like accessories.

(Photo source: Cci.mit.edu)