Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jodhpur, have come up with a decision framework for educational institutions called "Campus RAKSHAK" that integrates various applications and tools into one to prevent possible spread of COVID-19 and ensure smooth reopening of campuses.

IIT Jodhpur has collaborated with IISc Bangalore, IIT Kharagpur, IIIT Hyderabad, IIT Bombay, Algorithmic Biologics Pvt Ltd, HeathBadge Private Limited and Prthvi.AI to build, integrate and test to ensure safety on campuses through this initiative.

While two prototypes of Campus RAKSHAK have been tested simultaneously at IIT Jodhpur and IIIT Hyderabad, the team is in talks to devise affordable and flexible pricing model, product, marketing and sales strategy to reach out to campuses across the country.

Campus RAKSHAK has four components -- Tapestry Pooling, Go Corona Go App, Simulators and Healthbadge. These form a single platform that monitor, predict, and recommend mitigation strategies for campuses against CoViD-19.

"The tapestry pooling method assigns individual samples to multiple pools, reducing the cost of screening to one-fourth. Based on the results of each pool, the algorithm predicts COVID-19 positive samples," Manas Bairagi, Chief Technological Officer, iHub Drishti, said. iHub Drishti at IIT Jodhpur is a technology innovation hub focussed around computer vision, augmented reality and virtual reality.

"'Go Corona Go App' is a mobile app similar to Aarogya Setu, but the data is accessible to the administration for making the right decisions to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Its primary purpose is to conduct contact tracing. Users will remain connected to the campus server through the Bluetooth of the phone," Mr Bairagi added.

Explaining about the Simulators, Mr Bairagi said it consist of three simulation models -- Campus Modeler, CampusSim and EpiSimmer. "The simulator will be able to predict where the COVID-19 positivity will spread in the coming days. This can be considered an advisory system to help the administration make decisions.”