X-PRIZE NEXT-GEN FACE MASK CHALLENGE

In 2020, a team was assembled and set out to enter and win first prize in the X-Prize Next Gen Face Mask Challenge. The completion was in response to a rapid rise in facemask usage across the United States because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Everyone was required to wear facemasks while within 6 ft of each other and lifestyle adjustment was quite uncomfortable to many. One commonly heard issue was that when breathing heavily in a facemask, steam would rise up the face, causing sweat to accumulate around the lower, face and fog up glasses. With this in mind, a prototype was designed to integrate folds and ventilation into the mask to allow for some of the air, when exhaled to pass through he mask while still using the filtering effects of the mask. This reduced the sweating and fog that accumulated on the face when breathing. The following proposal was entered into the competition and won the First place prize of $1 million dollars to continue research and development of the technology.