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    Naval Acquisition Development Program intern designs, fabricates, tests and delivers prototype emergency ventilator in four days

    Naval Acquisition Development Program intern designs, fabricates, tests and delivers prototype emergency ventilator in four days

    Courtesy Photo | Mechanical engineer Reb Revels works in the maker space at Naval Undersea Warfare...... read more read more

    KEYPORT, WA, UNITED STATES

    05.05.2020

    Courtesy Story

    Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division

    In support of the COVID-19 response effort, Naval Acquisition Development Program (NADP) intern and engineer Reb Revels had the idea of operationalizing his previous work in the emerging field of Asymmetric Industrial Warfare (AIW).

    The result? An optimized emergency ventilator design, fabricated and delivered for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in just four days.

    AIW is a concept created and developed by Garry Shields, founder and director of the Disruptive Technology Lab at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Carderock Division. In essence, AIW uses the industrial capacity within government labs, Warfare Centers, and University Affiliated Research Centers, implementing agile design methodology and a unique fielding and design approach that moves away from producing high-cost, exquisite platforms in favor of delivering critical capability as defined by the end user when they need it.

    Following a three-month rotation at NSWC Carderock Division, Revels, a mechanical engineer with Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Keyport Division, was connected with Keith Archbold, the Warfare Centers’ Director of Technology Investments and Partnerships, a former Silicon Valley tech executive and founder of TechVentures.

    Through TechVentures, Revels’ work in AIW was integrated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and its open-source ventilator design efforts, which were being pursued by MIT in parallel. Revels quickly optimized the MIT design with other open-source designs, including from the University of Minnesota, using AIW concepts and innovative supply-chain solutions.

    Revels credited his experiences – and connections – gained through NADP, which provides new hires the ability to move around within their command and externally to other commands for three-month rotations.

    “This has enabled me to not only learn a great deal of what various Warfare Centers and the Navy has to offer, but most importantly, to network with professionals all over the Navy,” Revels said. “If I had not been aligned with NADP, I would not have had the opportunity or capability to link to such a complex palette of concepts, experts, build spaces, and the autonomy to build this prototype ventilator itself. Jarred Crum, my hiring boss (at NUWC Keyport Division), made the NADP opportunity possible – I can’t thank him enough, and hope more people can take advantage of this awesome program.”

    The unique combination of access to technology sourcing networks and a flexible environment that allowed Revels the autonomy to innovate quickly were key factors in the project’s success. Similar to how cybersecurity aims to decrease the “attack surface” to reduce vulnerability in systems, TechVentures connects innovators to new or previously underutilized technology sources and funding opportunities to increase the “creative surface area” for better performing and more timely solutions.

    Embracing innovation drivers and avoiding typical bureaucratic detractors is nothing new in state-of-the-art maker space environments, such as Microsoft’s Global Innovation Exchange, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, or the University of Washington’s Co-Motion Accelerator Maker Spaces, Archbold said. It can be revealing, however, in a more locked-down development environment, governed by very intricate federal acquisition regulations, such as DoD Instruction 5000.02.

    “Creating the widget itself is not nearly as difficult as creating the end-to-end development environment that produces those widgets in a repeatable fashion,” Archbold said. Reinforcing that point on a larger scale, he added, “Other than having a net economic superiority over our peer adversaries and the ability to outspend them in key emerging technologies, the best way to stay ahead is to increase the rate of innovation per unit of time – then even hard-to-prevent intellectual property theft is less of a factor, especially if we are always one or two generations ahead on the technology.”

    Although ventilators today are highly engineered and extremely precise, some outside sources are making simplistic ventilators with an ambu-bag resuscitator, strictly designed for high-urgency situations in which the patient would only be on the ventilator for 24 hours. Revels defined his project as an emergency ventilator for patients who are in crisis and being transported to hospitals and urgent care facilities.

    The design could have been expanded to include the same capabilities as ventilators rolling off the assembly lines at Ford, General Electric and General Motors; however, the intent was not to compete with those efforts, but to highlight how the Warfare Centers can move very fast if the rules change just a little.

    The combination of NADP, MIT, AIW, TechVentures, and smart engineers embracing key innovation drivers created a loosely coupled networked approach and produced next-generation results, Archbold said.

    “The best part is it can be easily replicated,” he added. “It is up to you!”

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 05.05.2020
    Date Posted: 05.07.2020 12:09
    Story ID: 369354
    Location: KEYPORT, WA, US

    Web Views: 307
    Downloads: 0

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