COURTESY ASHWIN KUMAR COURTESY JONATHAN GUEVAREZ COURTESY ROHAN WALIA COURTESY FOREST TERWILLIGER
Bailey recognized the potential to take an
active part in this historic moment.
“I thought, if I do this, I can tell my
kids that I worked in the fight against the
COVID-19 pandemic,” Bailey said.
The senior joined a team with several
other students to develop a microcontroller
that interpreted flow meter data for the
converted machine, allowing for real-time
measurements of air flow rates. Bailey
wrote code and worked with fellow seniors
Jonathan Guevarez and Connor Herron on
integration and testing. Processing the data
from the sensor into meaningful flow rates
and inhale/exhale volumes was the role of
Forest Terwilliger and Cole Berger, while
Rohan Walia and Austin Guevara focused
their efforts on the user interface that reported
the machine’s status. Social distancing
in the Blacksburg lab, graduate students
Ashwin Kumar and Cody Dowd focused
on flow meter design and final assembly,
respectively.
The project was notable not only for its
response to this moment in history; it also
provided an opportunity for real application
of classroom knowledge for Bailey. He
believes that the bare metal microcontroller
programming skills that everyone on the
team used to build this device is a skill that
will be very valuable at the company for
which he will work.
“This work felt meaningful, because I
knew I was working on something that
would help people in this time of need.”
Bailey said. “This project reminded me of
the purpose of my God-given talents — to
show love to hurting people, and in this
case it was making technologies that help
people. This realization gave me new motivation
and drove my productivity across all
areas.”
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