- Arctech Innovation and WAE announce a strategic partnership to develop innovative technologies for disease protection
- WAE will employ its experience in aerodynamic simulation, product design, battery technology and mechanical development to support the programme
- The design will be tailored to be appropriate for a wide range of user groups and operating conditions
Arctech Innovation, a spin-out from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and WAE have announced a strategic partnership on an exciting programme of work to develop innovative technologies offering protection from some of the world’s most deadly diseases including malaria.
WAE will lend its extensive experience and expertise in aerodynamic simulation, product design, battery technology and mechanical development to support Arctech Innovation to develop a range of novel wearable technology products designed to target mosquitoes and other disease-transmitting insects.
The product design team at WAE has worked with the scientific team at Arctech Innovation to ensure the design is tailored to be appropriate for a wide range of user groups and a variety of operating conditions and requirements including intermittent power, battery life, reliability and portability.
Professor James Logan, CEO and Co-Founder of Arctech Innovation, says: “We are excited to form this important strategic partnership with WAE which brings a new and innovative engineering approach to our products which are designed to protect people against insects that transmit diseases like dengue and malaria.”
Arctech Innovation is a world-leading innovation centre for breakthrough research, evaluation and commercialisation of new, game-changing products for the surveillance, diagnosis, and control of diseases such as malaria and COVID-19. Its expertise in laboratory and field research into mosquito bite prevention will lead the way for much needed innovative new tools in this area.
This official partnership builds on the success of an existing collaboration, where WAE employed race-derived aerodynamics and its proprietary database of computer fluid dynamic (CFD) models to guide the product design work. During the analysis of this first phase, multiple CFD runs were completed covering a range of conditions and use cases to achieve optimal protection of the user.
Professor Mary Cameron, Co-Founder and Director, Arctech Innovation, says: “We are delighted to be able to call upon the industry-leading expertise of WAE in the field of aerodynamics which will be invaluable to our ongoing research and development programme at Arctech Innovation.”
Ian Turner, Head of Aerodynamics, WAE added: “It is always rewarding to be able to apply motorsport-derived technologies to new applications and in doing so, support the team from Arctech Innovation in maximising the coverage and efficiency of their device.”
In addition, WAE used its knowledge of battery technology to identify battery cells that would deliver maximum run time and efficiency.
Professor Elena Lurie-Luke, who helped to establish this exciting partnership, says: “A true innovation comes from crossing boundaries and bringing together different expertise. This collaboration between Arctech Innovation, with its chemical ecology and entomology expertise, and WAE, with its engineering expertise, enables a unique platform for knowledge integration to develop the next generation of control tools against mosquitoes”.
Paul McNamara, Technical Director, WAE commented: “We are delighted to be playing a key role in this crucial technical innovation which will help to combat one of the world’s major health challenges. Our unique expertise, including aerodynamics and electrification, will enable new ways to further improve the effectiveness of this potentially life-changing device.”
