After working with young people suffering from mental and physical disabilities for nearly 20 years, Mario Vigentini invented a device to change their quality of life, the device raises up users so they are face-to-face with those standing.

Mario felt that this category of people was disheartened by the prejudice from others and he wanted to find a way to change the situation. “Trying to put an ergonomic seat -- like those from the Nordic countries that were very fashionable in the 1990s -- on a Segway," Mario said.

Allison Tu, a student at duPont Manual High School, in 2016 started the Student Alliance for Mental Health Innovation and Action (StAMINA) because she felt her friends and peers struggling with mental health issues were not taken care of.

“I saw a lot of my friends at my high school and in the state, peers, who were really struggling, some with mental health issues, and some with everyday stress and everyday sadness, and probably some undiagnosed disorders,” Allison said. “There didn’t seem to be anyone doing anything about it."

Bethany Millar was diagnosed with leukaemia when she was 17 and now, at 24 she was given the all-clear, the support she received from the Teenage Cancer Trust charity inspired her to create a communication toolkit to help young people talk more comfortably about their diagnosis.

The kit includes games, music cards and sweets, also, it includes an informative book to advise friends on how to talk to people going through treatment, with space for messages and questions.

During his freshman year at the University of Dayton, Spencer Janning was assigned a project during his Engineering Innovation class to help Lianna, a teenager with cerebral palsy.

"We were assigned to create a new knee and hip abductor for a child who had cerebral palsy," Janning said.

“People who have cerebral palsy do what’s called scissoring of the legs which is where they will take one leg and wrap it around the other leg continually where they cause themselves a lot of pain,” he said.

Engineering and physical therapy students at the University of North Florida (UNF) helped start the Adaptive Toy Project in 2014, an initiative to modify toys for young children with disabilities so they can play.

“The understanding of what each profession brings to the table is a process of learning, negotiation, and respect," says Mary Lundy, co-founder of the program and assistant professor in UNF’s physical therapy program.

Robin Cianchoso teaches middle school students with learning disabilities at St. Francis of Asissi Catholic High School in Memphis, Tennessee. To help her students remember math concepts, Robin created a math app with her brother, Chris Moore.

During her 29 years of teaching, she realised kids were struggling to remember math concepts. “They end up hating math. They have anxiety about math. They stop learning math,” she said.

Portable bidets on the market are designed for people who have with a significant range of motion in two arms. The designs include short and limited water reservoir and usually, the portable bidets are underpowered. During the 2019 MIT Assistive Technology Hackathon, a team developed a portable bidet pairing with a person with disabilities.

The team aimed at creating a design that would enable persons with disabilities to use the toilet at work, at school, while on vacation, or anywhere there is not a bidet already attached to a toilet.

Alex Rosenberg is on a wheelchair and has limited arm strength. He took part in the sixth Assistive Technologies Hackathon (ATHack) organised by the MIT, where, paired with some students, he co-developed a device to perform simple everyday tasks.

"The hospitals, the therapists, and family and friends take care of the major things, but picking up a cup or throwing a ball to your kids are deemed by everybody else as not important enough to spend precious time figuring out how to make easier,” Alex says.

When Chloe Smith, from England, was three, she had severe meningitis in the form of an acute infection of the bloodstream and inflammation of the blood vessels, which led to severe complications for the development of her joints, arms and legs: her right arm did not develop and her foot had to be amputated. She was already wearing a prosthetic leg, but she needed a hand.

The Predictive Healthcare Team from the University of Pennsylvania developed a tool, the Covid-19 Hospital Impact Model for Epidemics (CHIME), to assist hospitals with capacity planning around Covid-19.

As demand increases following the pandemic outbreak, hospital systems need up-to-date projections of what additional resources will be required. CHIME will give informed estimates of how many patients will need hospitalization, ICU beds, and mechanical ventilation.

A multidisciplinary group of volunteers built HospitalHero, a platform to connect healthcare workers in need of meals, supplies or anything else with volunteers able to help.

Through the website, healthcare workers can request help and volunteers can choose who and how to help. When the healthcare worker posts a request, HospitalHero contacts local volunteers and, once a good match is found, the volunteer can respond to the healthcare worker. Then the two parties coordinate directly.

To fight the shortage of protective equipment during the Covid-19 outbreak, a maker shared a design for 3D printed goggles to be used as protection from splashes emited by infected people.

The 3D components of the googles form the frame. The lenses are 1mm thick and should be manufactured with a transparent material like PC or PVC. PVC can be cut manually thanks to its flexibility whereas PC requires a laser cut.

A team of scientists, clinicians and researchers from Imperial College London and the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust will lead the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission (REACT) programme to conduct home testing and improve understanding of the spread of Coronavirus and the recovering rate since the outbreak.

In Calgary, Canada, Dr. David Keegan leads an on the spot workout session while waiting in line outside the grocery store.

Customers of the store where exercising while maintaining social distancing and it was also a way to stay warm while waiting.

“I said ‘alright everybody, we’re here at the Costco lineup, so it’s time for a Costco workout! How about this: I’ll lead you in some exercises and away we’ll go,” David Keegan said.

The municipality of Milan created an email address, ‘milanoaiuta@comune.milano.it’, to collect all the initiatives for citizens over 65, people affected by chronic conditions, and immunosuppressed people. Initiative that are organised in the area with the aim of helping the segments of the population more at risk during the Coronavirus outbreak.

The Japanese college, Business BreakThrough University (BBT) used high-tech solutions to ensure its students could still walk across the stage at graduation.

During the ceremony, held on March 28, several students received their diplomas as digital ‘avatars’ of themselves. The ‘avatars’ were dressed in caps and gowns and included screens for faces.

The graduation featured four robots and the students experienced the ceremony through an online call.

Harsh Shah created a World’s Live Covid19 Dashboard that provides real-time updates about the Covid-19 outbreak state.

The project was designed with handy components to create a simple dashboard interface. The components used are:
- ESP8266
- OLED Display
- Jumper Cables

The data derives from the https://www.trackcorona.live/ website.

Fatima al Kaabi from the United Arabic Emirates, at only 16-year-old, started developing a robot to help sick kids attend classes in school.

The idea of the robot came from a joke. “I missed school to attend different events several years ago, and I remember staying back with my teacher after school who joked about me inventing “all the inventions in the world” but not inventing a robot that goes to school instead of me,” Al Kaabi said.

Meg Zukin, in a tweet, asked the internet for relationship drama during the COVID-19 pandemic to document under the lockdown.

People can submit stories anonymously and readers were initially asked to donate $1 to see the posts that were collated on a Google document.

In less than two days, she raised $5,000 and then turned the google doc into a free and public website that is still taking donations. Posts can also be seen on Instagram.

The raised money was donated to various foundations, charities, and people affected by coronavirus.

The YouTube channel JKL shared a tutorial to make a face shield at home using common items.

The materials required are:
- 2 little plastic bottles
- Kitchen sponge
- Hair band
- Tape

It takes around 3 minutes to make the face shield, and it should only be used when commercial protective equipment is not available.

For more information and detailed instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLk-oK5Ckp4