An educational robot that speaks in Quechua and a quick test: Peruvian science battles covid-19 | Society

Peruvian scientists, with or without financial support from the State, seek solutions to covid-19 in their country, the second worst hit in the region and, at the same time, with one of the lowest investments in scientific research in South America: 0.1% of GDP. Among the most prominent and inexpensive solutions they have proposed are a rapid test, helmets to supply oxygen to coronavirus patients and a robot girl for education in bilingual rural communities where there is no electricity or internet. In-person classes were suspended in March and distance education has been since April.

The scientist and researcher of neurodegenerative diseases Edward Málaga-Trillo leads a team that, in June, created a molecular test that detects the coronavirus in saliva in 40 minutes. The test, similar to a pregnancy test, will cost $ 14 to $ 20. A similar development is unprecedented in Peru and the National Institute of Health is working on its validation.

On the first Sunday of August, dozens of Peruvian researchers became a trend on Twitter with the hashtag “Without science, there is no future.” They asked the government to support the value of scientific evidence in decision-making in this critical context. There were no responses. However, last Friday, the director of the National Council of Science and Technology (Concytec), Fabiola León Velarde, appreciated the response of Peruvian scientists to the pandemic. “They have shown that with a little more resources and support we can have the germ of technological independence in the face of an epidemic outbreak,” he said.

”Molecular tests (processed by complex machines) work well if you don’t have an urge. In April we saw that the number of tests carried out did not increase and a test was needed that did not require specialized personnel or expensive instruments ”, explains Málaga-Trillo, director of the neurobiology laboratory of the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia, from Lima. For this initiative, Málaga Trillo partnered with three other research laboratories from the University of Applied Sciences and with a researcher who is doing a post-doctorate at Stanford University. He submitted the proposal to two scientific project competitions promoted by public entities in the context of the pandemic, but was not selected. One of them justified that the application seemed “very ambitious.” So the researcher turned to the private sector.

“Never before have I seen support from private companies for research (in Peru). Now, solidarity has been evident from the first moment ”, commented the scientist. The rapid detection project for SARS CoV2 raised $ 300,000 from four private companies and used laboratory equipment provided by two universities. Málaga carried out a work in three phases: extraction of viral genes, copying or amplification of those genes and detection. “Science and technology policies in Peru are incorrectly aimed at increasing the country’s productivity, but basic science is highly profitable, as in this case. I study fish embryos to see the mechanisms that degenerate the brain, I have in my head the ‘cooking recipes’ to generate this test ”, he explains.

Málaga Trillo regrets that the Peruvian government has allocated some 3,000 million dollars to alleviate the health and economic crisis, not including funds for science. However, the diversity of projects of some 250 researchers who have responded to the pandemic between April and May stands out. According to Concytec, in two contests it received 1,100 proposals to face the challenges of the new coronavirus in Peru. The funds distributed among the 50 winners amount to about $ 2.8 million.

Against scarcity

José Luis Mantani, with a doctorate in naval engineering and professor at the National University of Engineering (UNI), also presented his project to Concytec: a non-invasive oxygenation helmet. He was seeking to adapt a system that Italy used successfully during the pandemic, but his proposal was also rejected. To continue, she went into debt. “I work at a public university and it was a surprise not to have the support of the state. Before I was researching plastic compounds applied to naval engineering, they were pure research work and we have migrated to bioengineering to contribute to the country. We think: if we don’t have intensive care beds, what do we do? ”Asks Mantari.

The engineer found the answer while preparing a state of the art. “There is an upturn in pure scientific research that is turning towards the problems of the pandemic,” he says, citing the Fénix artificial ventilator, developed by a team of colleagues from the same university and approved by the health authority in June. “Paradoxically, the main projects that have been born have not had support from Concytec, the Phoenix researchers have worked with their own money,” says Mantari, who also mentions the manufacture of fabric with nanoparticles to protect medical personnel. Another solution produced by UNI.

Non-invasive oxygenation helmets are already in use in public hospitals in eight regions of the country. “We want to be the other side of the private coin. Just as there were clinics that charged exorbitant prices, we are going to do the opposite, delivering these helmets at fair prices, ”she adds.

Kipi’s light

About 15 hours from Lima by road, in the Andean region Huancavelica, professor Walter Velásquez has created a robot girl for rural students without internet access or electricity. “Kipi is like a rural girl who brings hope, shares knowledge, has information, is super-ecological because it works with solar energy, plays music and dances, gives joy,” says Velásquez to EL PA<2FEMININE>S about his invention, made of electronic scrap.

The Santiago Antúnez school teacher fed the robot the audios of Aprendo en Casa, the state plan for distance education, and other materials in Quechua and Spanish. He also created a mobile application that operates as a dashboard for Kipi to answer questions and move. Kipi weighs almost six kilos, depending on the number of photovoltaic panels placed on it, and it owes its name to quipi, in Quechua, the load that one carries on one’s back wrapped in a blanket. The teacher transports her on a mule to communities that are up to nine hours from school, some in extreme poverty. There he teaches children and adults to use the robot and charge the batteries, and after a few days he picks it up.

”I would like to have an industry and produce a hundred Kipis, because it is a pedagogical tool. In a diagnosis in the area, we found that students do not understand what they read, so it is necessary to teach more with the auditory sense, not so much with books, ”explains Velásquez, who in 2018 received the Palmas Magisteriales, the highest recognition that the State Peruvian grants a teacher. After the suspension of classes in March due to the pandemic, the teacher lost contact with half of his students. “I was worried, because when talking to parents about reading comprehension problems, some did not know what to do. I needed a tool to entertain them and use creativity. Kipi has lighting, he goes around, reads texts, he is a technological toy ”, adds Velásquez.

With the funds that the teacher obtained in teaching innovation competitions, he created a biochemistry laboratory in the school. And since he has a fixed salary as a teacher, he saves a part to pay for his students’ trips to international science fairs. ”The idea is that a rural student can be creative in the face of the difficulties of doing research. Maybe we don’t have enough microscopes or technology, but they can analyze the water in their communities, learn to think, to fail, to see differently. I turned my classroom into a laboratory, here we train curious children ”, he says.

Information about the coronavirus

– The coronavirus map: this is how cases grow day by day and country by country

– Questions and Answers About Coronavirus

– Guide to action against the disease

– If you have symptoms, these are the phones that have been enabled in each country in Latin America.

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