How our community is taking initiative against COVID-19
Building low-cost ventilators
A multidisciplinary team of academics and students from the University of Sydney is leading a collaboration with NSW Health Infrastructure to produce a simple, low cost ventilator solution to assist the COVID-19 effort.
Mentoring high schools students through change
Current students Max Glanville (Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Laws) and Jake Slaytor (Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws) have established ThreeFourFive, a free mentoring service connecting high schools students with university student mentors to help them adapt to a new mode of learning.
Developing blood tests to help our healthcare system
Associate Professor Benjamin Tang and his team are working to develop a blood test to predict which COVID-19 patients will develop life-threatening complications and ultimately require urgent medical treatment.
Associate Professor Tang in the laboratory at the University of Sydney's Marie Bashir Institute. Photography by Janie Barrett / The Sydney Morning Herald.
Improving coronavirus diagnosis
DetectED-X, headed by CEO Professor Patrick Brennan from the Faculty of Medicine and Health, has directed its breast cancer diagnosis tool at the coronavirus to help doctors and radiologists diagnose cases faster and more accurately.
Engineering new medical equipment from home
Staff members and alumni Jonathon Lillia (BE(Hons) '17) and Dr Tegan Cheng (BE(BiomedEng) '12 BMedSc '12 PhD '16) are using their biomedical engineering expertise to run the EPIC Lab out of their homes, delivering creative 3D printing solutions for equipment shortages within the health network.
Supporting local businesses
Students from the Faculty of Medicine and Health, the Faculty of Science, the Law School and the Business School have created Local Spots, a not-for-profit platform to help customers buy gift cards from their favourite local businesses affected by COVID-19.
Helping stood-down workers find employment
Hatch, co-founded by business and arts alum Adam Jacobs (BA '07 BCom '07), has established a COVID-19 labour exchange to help Australian businesses rapidly hire workers who've been stood down.
Hatch Exchange co-founder Adam Jacobs.
Sharing stories from teachers
Education academic Associate Professor Jen Scott Curwood teamed up with teaching graduates Emma Campbell and Laurie-Anne Hudson to establish Stories from Teachers social media accounts which share the voices of teachers working under tougher conditions.
Keeping children engaged and healthy
Founded by education alum and Genesis program participant Jarrad Dober (BEd(Sec)(HMHE) '14), start-up TogetherWe has turned its educational platform towards creating daily challenges to improve emotional, physical and mental health of children during coronavirus isolation.
Providing sanitary products to women in need
As women struggle to find sanitary products during COVID-19 panic-buying, social enterprise the Cup Solution, founded via the Enactus society by students Emma Inglis, Vinuri Amalya, Emma Snow, Lorena Zheng and Jaya Virk, donates a menstrual cup to a woman in need for every menstrual cup bought through their online store.
Managing health remotely
Prix Testing, founded by business alum and Genesis program participant Alex Concannon (MCom '14 MIntBus '14), is developing remote health tests that people can send back to accredited labs, have their results reviewed by Australian GPs, and track through an app.
A Prix testing kit.