Responding to Covid-19 Pandemic with Advanced Technologies
Published on : Sunday 12-04-2020
The advancements and implementations of cutting-edge technologies in the time to combat the Covid-19 outbreak are gaining rapid interest around the world. From, government entities to VCs, academia, and startups, are all increasingly rolling out to deploy new innovative solutions. In a bid to respond to coronavirus, tech giants Apple Inc and Google said to come together to create contact tracing technology which aims at reducing the spread of the coronavirus. The technology will allow users to opt into logging other phones they have been near.
Governments are also putting their efforts day and night and creating and modifying policies to encourage the quick development of technologies in the fight against the Covid-19. In this way, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) enables companies to channel their obligatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending towards creating funds for new innovative technologies.
Several companies around the world are now using 3D printing technology to rapidly develop and manufacture much-needed equipment as the demand of medical facilities would surpass supply. For example, Baker Hughes global additive teams in the US, Germany, Italy, the UK, and Saudi Arabia have collaboratively put their efforts ahead. The teams started a daily meeting and file sharing to identify approved designs, the materials that each site can print, ways to engage with local government and healthcare facilities, and other best practices.
On the other hand, DeepCode, which offers artificial intelligence to help developers assess their code for bugs, now offers its cloud and self-managed solutions for free for at least the next three months. The technology from DeepCode relies on machine learning that processes code in open-source software projects, looks for stern coding issues and detects bugs. Also, researchers from MIT and experts from other institutions are building a system called PACT (Private Automatic Contact Tracing). The system is designed to help public health officials to track and trace Covid-19 while preserving privacy. The PACT system works based on short-range Bluetooth signals emitted by smartphones, and the signals draw random strings of numbers that nearby smartphones can receive and remember.
Moreover, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company Aruba has installed network infrastructure on the GNV Splendid, a passenger ferry that has been turned into a floating hospital to beat the Covid-19 pandemic. Moored in Genoa, Italy, the GNV Splendid has been altered to provide hospital space and medical facilities for patients with coronavirus in Italy. The network infrastructure consists of 70 access points and over 4 kilometers of cable, which offers Wi-Fi coverage for healthcare workers and patients on various decks. While delivering medical efforts, as well as data transfer to and from Genoa hospital, the network also said to enhance the day-to-day experience for patients onboard, enabling them to get full internet connectivity during their stay.
So, in the time of global crisis, technology is playing a key role and its adoption by companies across the world has picked up. Considering this technological assistance, we believe, the use of advanced technologies will reach higher in the coming year and will become a boon for the world in a need of time like a present pandemic.