The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has selected nine winners for the second phase of the Respirator Fit Evaluation Challenge. 

The Challenge is a three-phase, $350,000 competition aimed at improving respirator fit evaluation. It seeks practical solutions that deliver real-time information on filtering facepiece respirator fit.

Tight fitting respirators provide the expected level of protection only if they are used correctly. To achieve intended levels of protection, they must properly fit the user.

“Recent and recurring disasters, including the recent pandemics and frequent large wildfires in the western United States and Canada, highlight the need for appropriate respiratory protection,” said Maryann D’Alessandro, Ph.D., director of NIOSH’s National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory. “The solutions developed through this challenge will provide novel technologies and innovative approaches with the aim of delivering immediate feedback to users about the fit of their respirator during use.” 

The Phase 2 winners represent a diverse range of solutions that were prototyped based on their Phase 1 solution concepts. Challenge participants incorporated technologies such as lidar—a remote sensing technology—, embedded sensor networks, and AI enhanced facial scanning and recognition into approaches that could deliver immediate evaluation and feedback to end users about the fit of filtering facepiece respirators during use. 

From the Phase 2 submissions, NIOSH selected nine winners who will equally share the Phase 2 prize of $100,000. Phase 2 winners are (in no particular order):

• TruFIT LLC – Fail-safe, visual, and real-time fit indicators for facial personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and respirators.
• Richárd Ádám Vécsey and Axel Ország-Krisz, Team rixel – An AI assisted mobile application and its infrastructure to give immediate feedback for the user about the fit of the selected filtering facepiece respirator.
• OpenAeros LLC – OpenFT: A low-cost, open source, quantitative fit tester that pairs a unique non-destructive sampling probe with an open source condensation particle counter to deliver real time respirator fit measurement.
• Philip Neustrom – FitTests4All Home Fit Testing Kit: An affordable respirator evaluation solution designed for both home and on-the-go use.
• Tony Jiang – TIR: A solution that harnesses the mechanics of temperature sensors to determine respirator fit in real-time. 
• Sungmee Park and Sundaresan Jayaraman – A fabric-based sensor network integrated into an filtering facepiece respirator continuously and unobtrusively monitors the respirator fit and provides alerts when there is face seal leakage that could compromise the fit.
• Consequent Labs – A novel solution to enable rapid, user-friendly, and highly-scalable respirator fit testing of professional users and the general public for routine use and during public health emergencies.
• Mobomo – Fit & Breathe: Complete particulate filtering facepiece respirator management.
• MyMaskMovement – A mobile testing app that makes fit testing inclusive and accessible.

In Phase 3 of the Challenge, the winners will submit a pre-production prototype for NIOSH evaluation. At the conclusion of Phase 3, NIOSH will choose up to three teams to receive a portion of the $150,000 Phase 3 prize purse. 

To learn more about the Challenge and the Phase 2 Challenge winners, please visit the Challenge website.

This Challenge is a collaboration between NIOSH, Capital Consulting Corporation, and the NASA Tournament Lab.

NIOSH is the federal institute that conducts research and makes recommendations for preventing work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths. For more information about NIOSH, visit www.cdc.gov/niosh.