Donaghpatrick man needs votes in global mask design competition

DCU student and Wolfe Tones player Caolan Ward joins forces with cousins in Australia for project

A Donaghpatrick student and his cousins have reached the final of a global Covid mask design competition, having been selected to make the top 10 out of 1,000 teams. To make the top five, they need support in a public vote before Wednesday.

Caolan Ward explains: “The international competition is organised and officiated by XPrize in the US. There were just under 1,000 teams that submitted a design and description video for it in August, at this stage there are 10 teams left, of which my team is one. The judging is based on how well we address the top 10 reasons people don't like wearing current face masks, as found via survey by XPrize.

“We have consulted with major fabricator 3M to produce 50 prototypes and they are now being lab tested to ensure they meet/exceed current surgical mask efficacy. This current stage sees some of our masks sent out to social media influencers and also to Under Armour to test the social appeal factor of the mask. As part of that, a public vote has been made to measure support for each of the top 10 designs. It started on the 18th November and runs until the 25th November.

“We need as many people as possible to go to the competition website to vote for our mask. The voting url is www.xprize.org/masksurvey or www.xprize.org/mask

Caolan’s team is called Merlin. “There are three of us; myself (marketing and promotion), my cousin (engineer) who is currently living in America, and his girlfriend (art and design). Our mask addresses nearly all of the current issues with face masks. Our mask gives no glasses-fog, it reduces the area of your face covered by the mask, corrugations increase ventilation reducing the sensation of heat on your face, voice distortion is reduced, the material we use is comfortable enough to wear all day, and our manufacturing methods result in zero waste of material, making it more sustainable. We plan on moving into recycled material for the mask if we succeed in the competition.

“Our team also has support from Australia, from our uncle and cousin, made possible because of our family ties to one another, which all link back to our collective homeplace in Donaghpatrick, Navan, and our grandfather Vincent Garvey who will turn 100 years old in January. The circular corrugations of the mask were even inspired by the rings at the Hill of Tara, and Ráth Athair in Donaghpatrick.

Caolan, who plays football with Wolfe Tones, is a second year student in DCU studying marketing, innovation and technology.

"The idea for competing came as a result of us keeping in contact with each other through video calls through the lockdown periods. Brandon (my cousin and recently graduated engineer) usually visits us every summer with his parents. Unfortunately that was cancelled this time around. He approached me with the idea and I was only too happy to join him and his girlfriend Sara in trying to bring it into reality. His engineering background, Sara's art and design background and my marketing background gelled together perfectly to make it happen."

See www.xprize.org/masksurvey or www.xprize.org/mask