Project Brevara
Team Brevara is committed to developing a cost-effective, user-friendly, and easy-to-assemble mechanical ambu bag pump for transportable emergency ventilation in conjunction with the San Juan de Dios hospital in Guatemala.
Mission
Transportation to hospitals across Guatemala can take over an hour, and often up to three or more as ambulances travel across uneven terrain and stopped traffic. This puts immense strain on emergency services when faced with a patient who needs ventilation, forcing workers to manually pump an Ambu Bag steadily for the prolonged period of time and risking additional harm to the patient. By creating a mechanical pump targeted for ambulance travel, the team hopes to minimize both worker strain and patient risk during transportation to hospitals.
Project Brevara was founded during the Spring semester of 2025.
Background
Project Brevara was founded in early 2025. As such, we are focusing our efforts this semester on concepting, prototyping, and development roadmapping. Our goal is to develop fast, collect impactful user feedback, and improve our design to serve low-resource hospitals and communities.
Project Overview
Project Brevara’s prototype is based on the open-source MIT E-Ventilator (shown below). We hope to adapt this design to be useful in transport, adding more safety features and documentation to ensure it is easy to manufacture and use in Guatemala.
Project Update
The last year has been spent prototyping, gathering supplies, and keeping in contact with both students and staff at the San Juan de Dios hospital. Project Brevara’s first priority is to create a product that benefits the staff who will be using it, so the team has continued to ask questions and gather information from both students and Red Cross workers who have spent the long hours in travel, as well as exchange information about the development process.
The technical team focused primarily on product design and prototype development. Once the team discovered the E-Vent open source design, the majority of the year was spent with the housing, framing and gearing of the prototype. Further work during the upcoming school year will be with finishing the initial prototype and assembling the electrical parts, as well as beginning to incorporate modifications to the original design to fit our purpose.
MIT E-VentilatorCommunity Partner
Our community partner is the San Juan de Dios hospital, and we’re working primarily with students and medical staff, looking to branch out to Red Cross and local firefighters as the project continues. Dr. Erwin Calgua is our chief advisor on the Guatemalan side.
Dr. Erwin H. Calgua Guerra, M.D., MSCEOur Leads
Won Lee, Co-Lead
Biomedical Engineering 2028
Maya Martinson, Co-Lead
Biomedical & Electrical Engineering 2028
Contact Us
Email: projectbrevara@gmail.com
Instagram: @umichbrevara