COVID-19 is a serious dare for humanity that needs to be addressed with collaborative thinking in an innovative approach. Start-up entrepreneurs, recognized for their innovation and resilience, are swiftly confronting this crisis in numerous ways. Entrepreneurs in different fields have initiated to share their capabilities during this pandemic, out of which, in this blog post, I am honoured to share some insights of one particular entrepreneur confronting the challenge in his own unique way.
Mr A. M. Nilupul Nuwan Senevirathna, is an undergraduate at the Wayamba University of Sri Lanka, Faculty of Applied Sciences. As the coronavirus first started to emerge in our country it was him that thought of an innovation which could help stop the spread of the virus. With the constant reminder from social media to always wash our hands or sanitize, Mr Nilupul thought of an aspect that we would not have thought about at that moment. And that is, how can the visually challenged population of the country sanitize their hands? Just like that, the stepping stone for the innovation of the ‘Automated Hand Sanitizer’ was placed.
On the 20th of February 2020, Mr Nilupul and his colleague Mr Kanchana Aruna Kumara laid out the plan to construct this machine. They intended to eject sanitizer without touch. Accordingly, the first prototype was designed with the use of just a USB cable! This is when they realized, that this could not only benefit the visually challenged but the general public as well. Once this prototype was introduced to social media, the idea went viral, and within days Mr Nilupul was contacted by a CCU doctor at Panadura Base Hospital, requesting him to proceed with the invention, guiding him with the details in the medical aspect. As a result, he made 7 more prototypes which proved to be the ultimate invention they were all looking for. By April, the first 5 machines were thus donated to the Panadura Base Hospital which functions well as of today. 5 more machines have been donated to the IDH and few private companies, under the patron of Prof. Chinthaka Premachandra of Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan. He insisted on mentioning his other constant supporters; Dr W. A. S. Wijesinghe, Head of Department of Electronics, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka, Technical support by Mr Wasantha Kumar, Wasantha Engineering works, Panadura, and last but not least, Sri Lanka Inventors Commission. Consequently, Mr Nilupul founded his own robotics lab, ‘Robotechnica’ which resides at 100/6, Waththalpola Road, Panadura. (robotechnicanns@gmail.com)
The Automated Hand Sanitizer Machine received a great recognition just after few days of its production, as the team took proper quality control actions, every feedback they received was taken as an opportunity to improve the quality of the product that would benefit all of humanity, and the every 50-day quality check of all their productions improved the product features, like the transformation of the portable device into a battery-powered device. “The reason why the product became very successful in a matter of weeks was the idea we had to help those in need, irrespective of the profit or the recognition we would gain by this,” said Mr Nilupul. Finally, he added that there are a lot of young inventors and others who desire to achieve such dreams, and his word of advice to the blooming future inventors is to not always make recognition and profit the driving force of an invention, but have faith on the good that it would do to the rest of the mankind. Making something new and something that others haven’t witnessed before can be challenging, but be patient and use your talent to do good by taking the right advantages from social media. Put yourself in the situation of those in need, identify their needs and go from there. On an ending note, Mr Nilupul extends his heartiest gratitude to all his supporters and his support to the future inventors through his lab, whenever help is needed.
(nilupulsenavithna@gmail.com/0750552031)
Rtr. Charani De Silva
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