OpenCPC™ Competes in NIOSH Challenge
OpenAeros is excited to announce our selection as Phase 1 winners of the NIOSH Respirator Fit Evaluation Challenge for our OpenFT™ open source fit-testing solution!
Earlier this year, NIOSH launched a crowdsourced contest to solve major gaps in the fit-testing field in partnership with NASA and Capital Consulting Corporation. The challenge solicits “novel technologies and innovative approaches that deliver immediate evaluation and feedback to end users about the fit of filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) during use,” with particular focus on solutions that:
provide immediate feedback to mask wearers
do not destroy the respirators during testing
are suited for testing not only for the faces NIOSH standards focus on, but also those from a more diverse group, including underrepresented populations
“Respirators are crucial to protect workers and the public from various respiratory hazards, including airborne infectious agents and wildfire smoke. Many small or disadvantaged workplaces, however, lack the resources for fit testing, and workers at these underserved workplaces and the general public often wear respirators without knowing if they fit properly and provide the expected level of protection. The Challenge aims to address these issues by identifying practical solutions that deliver real-time information on respirator fit.”
Maryann D’Alessandro, Ph.D., director of NIOSH’s National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory
OpenAeros believes that respirator fit testing is life-saving and should be accessible to all, a driving ethos behind our OpenCPC™ and OpenFt™ projects. The OpenFT™ pairs the OpenCPC™ with an in-development non-destructive respirator probe, dramatically decreasing costs, increasing accessibility of mask fit testing and providing individuals with on-demand knowledge of how well their masks fits every time they put it on.
OpenCPC™ Prototype
We are now finalizing our prototype and developing demonstration materials to submit for Phase 2 consideration. Phase 2 winners will move on to a larger prize and prototyping phase, and will be announced in March 2024. Winners in this group will be eligible to proceed to a final Phase 3 later in the year, working with NIOSH to evaluate their prototypes.
Stay tuned for further NIOSH challenge updates!
