A UV Cube sterilization box has resulted in some global recognition for students at West Ferris Secondary School.
School officials say students of the STEAM program (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) have received one of 11 worldwide Vale COVID-19 challenge grants for their construction and distribution of the UV Cube sterilizer box.
The students who built the box are Tessa Summers, Fionna Truong, Ella Kelso and Emily Yates. They built the box at the request of Fionna’s father, Dr. James Truong, to assist with the sterilization of Personal Protective Equipment at the North Bay Regional Health Centre (NBRHC). Officials say the UV Cube is about the size of a small oven. The box is described as a do-it-yourself sterilizer made from materials found at a local hardware store. Using high-intensity ultraviolet light, the cube can sterilize everything from medical masks to mobile phones to shoes.
School officials add the funding from Vale will enable the production of fifty kits, which will be donated to small and medium medical clinics in Canada. In North Bay, the UV Cubes will be distributed to the NBRHC, Casselhome, Eastholme, LIPI, Lakeshore Dental and Northern Shores Pharmacy.
All the students are a part of the FIRST Robotics team 1305 and using contacts made from FIRST, they say they are able to send UV Cubes across the country to health care providers.
The Vale challenge was launched earlier this year to expand solutions against COVID-19, including risk monitoring and prevention and patient monitoring.
