The COVID-19 Detect and Protect Challenge is crowdsourcing open-source hardware innovations to tackle the disease. Every one of the 300+ innovations submitted is made freely available, with all instructions needed for others to build them. Here, we talk to Grand Prize Winner Samuel Adranyi behind Hands-Free Soap, Water and Paper Towel Dispenser.

Tell us about your solution. How does it address a specific need around COVID-19 response/recovery?

Keeping good hygiene has been the key to fighting the COVID-19 virus. My innovation, the touchless, hands-free dispenser seeks to maintain good community hygiene in an effective and affordable way. Currently, hand washing equipment found in many parts of the world requires people to come into contact with the soap bottles and the faucet during the hand washing process. Moreover, you must close the water faucet after washing your hands, which is often not sanitised regularly. With my solution, the entire process of washing your hands is completely contactless.

What was the inspiration behind the project?

This project was inspired by my wife. In Ghana, one often comes across a mechanism popularly known as ‘veronica buckets’ –a hand washing tool commonly found in public spaces. My wife wondered if there was a way that we could automate the veronica bucket, especially since washing one’s hands is so crucial nowadays. This idea inspired me as to use my IoT skills to build the solution you see today. 

Why do you think open-source is so important in responding to COVID-19?

As COVID-19 is a global crisis, it is very important that we share findings, approaches and technologies in fighting it. We are all in this together and therefore, open source is crucial as it allows us to learn. Through open source innovations, people from all over the world can collaborate to find novel solutions and improve on potential innovations. It is said that two heads are better than one and it is only through a unified effort that we can find workable solutions to beat the COVID-19 pandemic together.

What is the impact you hope to achieve with this solution?

I hope to further develop my prototype with input from the entire hacker community. I would like to work on making the current prototype more efficient and smaller so that it could be economically accessible to the majority. I would also like to make it more ‘intelligent’ in order to harness data to understand the patterns and behaviour related to hand washing and hygiene. This could also allow us to develop educational materials to disseminate to local communities.  

What is one solution in the #COVID19DetectProtect challenge that you wish you'd built?

Although there were many interesting projects that were submitted to the COVID19 Detect and Protect Challenge, I was very intrigued by the Connected Visor innovation!

About Samuel Adranyi: A Microsoft Azure MVP, Senior Software Engineer, Teacher, Speaker, Technology Advocate, Community Leader, Maker and early Adopter, Samuel has extensive experience and knowledge in application architecture, development and management. He has a strong passion and commitment to solving problems, sharing knowledge and building tech communities. Currently a Co-Organizer for the Accra.NET and Power Platform User Groups, He also hosts a podcast and 3 live stream shows every week.

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