Throughout the whole challenge our focus was directed toward the latest technologies, some of them still under development, that would have a positive impact on this fight against the virus.
Our studying process has identified two key technologies: a biosensor that is able to detect the RNA of the virus through the correct matching of its lab-made counterpart and an ultraviolet light based technology which is able to eliminate the virus.
We strongly believe that understanding the basic concept (that is the air purification problem) is of primary importance in order to be able to develop ideas that are as concrete as possible. So we divided among ourselves the topics that we wanted to deal with and that we found interesting enough. Then, from the concept we were able to arrive at an idea, focusing mainly on how to combine the different technologies available on the market or still in the development phase (which was our main problem in our project development) and then get to the final design. The questions we asked ourselves constantly were: "Is it useful?", "Do people feel the need of owning such a device?", "Which environments can benefit most from this system?", and so on. Always putting ourselves in doubt, we arrived at the final idea that we present in our project, D.I.U.S. As COVID-19 pandemic era continues, we have felt that how much it is important to purify the air in your surrounding area to get rid of airborne pathogens. We have checked NASA's research on air purification with the photocatalytic oxidation process. We have also found out Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) on the ISS is used to control the internal atmosphere, filter the air and recycle water and TCCS removes possible contaminant traces present in the air thanks to an oxidation catalyst. We have several problems regarding the process of airflow, size, how to use the sensor, working procedures, UV light sterilization and several others. But to come up with a proper solution was always a challenge for space and/or for the life on Earth, but we did it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1032t4tDav0LPNZXV8DRSxhmZqOKvyXAC/view?usp=sharing