Webinar RTOs and the Fight against COVID-19

Outline of the YEAR Webinar

• Adequate and reliable quality control for protective materials;
• Support for small and medium-sized enterprises in times of corona pandemic;
• The development of an early warning system for detection of corona virus symptoms among front line medical staff at Cork University Hospital;
• Modelling of the transport and spread of corona virus through the air in busy public indoor spaces.

Gert Otten,  VITO Belgium

Gert Otten is project manager of the Air Quality Management Systems research team. His research team focuses on the societal and economical need of clean air by providing local and more personalized monitoring systems in both indoor and outdoor environments. By combining innovative sensor technology and highly accurate reference equipment, they aim for a much larger spatial data set of reliable air quality data. Their specific expertise lies in the selection of the appropriate measurement strategy, intelligent data processing and analysis and in the availability of a state-of-the-art lab infrastructure for sensor validation, accurate analysis and methodology development. By assessing air quality in different micro-environments and quantifying the sources of air pollution they offer solutions to citizens, policy makers and industry to improve air quality through cost-efficient and targeted measures.

Anders Persson

Anders Persson, RISE Sweden

Anders manages the SME office at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, which cross divisionally is responsible for how RISE work with SMEs and develop that ability further. Anders is a Chemist as background. Previously to working at RISE, he had a long background within the life-science and lab-tech industry and has been also working at an UK-based institute – LGC Standards, managing the Nordic operations.

Paul Galvin

Paul Galvin, Tyndall Ireland

Dr Paul Galvin is Head of the ICT for Health Strategic Programmes and Head of the Life

Sciences Interface Group at the Tyndall National Institute. Tyndall ICT4Health Strategic programme represents approximately 30% of the overall research activity of Tyndall, and the Life Sciences Interface Group in Tyndall currently comprises of 26 research staff and students, including four PIs. Dr Galvin has led several multidisciplinary national and international research projects over the last two decades, which leverage nano and ICT solutions for challenges in healthcare. Dr Galvin is a former Chair of the Medical Devices Working Group within the European Technology Platform for Nanomedicine, Leader of the Working Group on Health Monitoring Sensors within the European Sensor Systems Cluster, and a member of the ESTHER (Emerging and Strategic Technologies for HEalthcaRe).

Aku Karvinen

Aku Karvinen, VTT Finland

Aku Karvinen works as a senior scientist at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Ltd, which is a state owned and controlled company. VTT provides research and innovation services and information for domestic and international customers and partners, both in private and public sectors. Aku’s research topics include, among other things, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), indoor air quality (IAQ) and safety including simulation of spread of naturally or intentionally released person-to-person transmissible pathogens. Recently this study is concentrated on the study of COVID-19.