Student Innovation is Providing Life-Sustaining Oxygen for Newborns

November 2014

Did you know that the parents of sick or premature newborns in developing countries tirelessly squeeze a hand-pumped ventilator 24 hours a day to keep their baby alive?

Still, the World Health Organization reports that nearly one million newborns die each year.

To help combat these tragic numbers, innovative BYU students from the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology have developed a portable ventilator with the potential to save thousands of infants’ lives. Costing just $500, the ventilator is 80 times less expensive than those found in first-rate hospitals. Doctors plan to use the device in developing nations.

“There are very few times in your life when you get to work on something as important as this,” says BYU engineering student Daniel Jankowski. “I realized every person has talents that they can bless people’s lives with. We can do so much good in this world if we apply the talents God has given us.”

Funding Future Innovation

Important research is why one of BYU’s key fundraising priorities this year is a new Engineering Building that will house top-notch technology, collaborative research labs, and test bays - all to help BYU students develop skills that will continue to improve and bless lives well into the next generation.

Take advantage of the Fulton Match and double your impact before the end of the year. Be a partner in student innovation. Help us build a cutting-edge facility for some of BYU’s most creative minds.

Please watch the video below and see the vital part you play in helping student innovation take flight at BYU.