NIOSH Announces Respirator Fit Evaluation Challenge Phase 2 Winners
The three-part challenge encourages the development of innovative respirator technology.
- By Robert Yaniz Jr.
- Mar 14, 2024
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has announced the nine winners of the second phase in its ongoing Respirator Fit Evaluation Challenge. NIOSH announced the challenge in January 2023 and revealed Phase 1 winners in July of that year.
According to a release dated March 12, the three-phase competition—with a total prize pool of $350,000—aims to enhance the evaluation of respirator fit, ensuring users receive real-time feedback to achieve the intended levels of protection. The goal of the challenge is to “crowdsource novel technologies and innovative approaches that deliver immediate evaluation and feedback to end users about the fit of filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) during use.”
Phase 2 of the challenge saw participants developing prototypes from their initial concepts, integrating advanced technologies such as lidar, AI-enhanced facial recognition, and embedded sensor networks. These innovations are designed to provide immediate feedback on the fit of filtering facepiece respirators, crucial for effective protection in hazardous environments.
The winners shared a $100,000 prize for showcasing such diverse technologies as visual indicators for real-time fit assessment, an AI-assisted mobile application for immediate user feedback, an open-source fit tester, an accessible home fit testing kit, a temperature sensor-based fit determination and a fabric-based sensor network for continuous monitoring.
“Recent and recurring disasters, including the recent pandemics and frequent large wildfires in the western United States and Canada, highlight the need for appropriate respiratory protection,” Maryann D’Alessandro, director of NIOSH’s National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, said in a statement. “The solutions developed through this challenge will provide novel technologies and innovative approaches with the aim of delivering immediate feedback to users about the fit of their respirator during use.”
A collaboration between NIOSH, Capital Consulting Corporation, and the NASA Tournament Lab, the challenge's final phase involves the submission of pre-production prototypes for NIOSH evaluation, with up to three teams sharing the final $150,000 prize. For more details on the challenge and the winners, visit the official Respirator Fit Evaluation Challenge website.
About the Author
Robert Yaniz Jr. is the Content Editor of Occupational Health & Safety.