“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ ” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
We believe that a business cannot be successful when the society around them suffers. The current pandemic around the globe is revealing the gaps in healthcare systems and a need for everyone to join hands to do their best with their time and resources.
A voluntary team of 13 engineers from Lam Research India along with 5 local doctors handling COVID-19 patients collaborated to outline key problems that an engineering team can help address. India has a population of approx. 1.3 Billion and the need to ramp up testing to limit the spread of COVID-19 in hotspots while keeping the healthcare professional and the public safe during testing was strongly felt. This team stepped up to address this medical challenge by designing and building Suraksha Kiosk, an innovative sample collection kiosk. ‘Suraksha’ in several Indian languages means safe or protection.
The team used following approach and techniques during the entire project: –
- 8D methodology and Pugh Matrix to evaluate various solution space.
- Systems Engineering approach for a smooth design and integration
- PDR process for a Phased implementation
SURAKSHA KIOSK’s design is inspired by: –

1. Semiconductor’s Vacuum Transfer Module (to enable 3X or higher Throughput/Productivity)

2. Semiconductor’s Vacuum Transfer Module (to enable 3X or higher Throughput/Productivity)

3. Semiconductor’s Chemical delivery systems (to sequentially deliver disinfectant/station)

4. Reversed – Hypoxia Glovebox (to ensure the safe sample collection)

5. Positive pressure Airborne Infection Isolation Room-AIIR (to eliminate the need for full-body PPE)
Since this Sample collection booth is Positively pressured it protects the health care providers from any known deadly or contagious Airborne diseases like COVID-19, SARS, MERS, Ebola to name a few and any future biological threats to the healthcare providers.

One of the main objectives of this design was to ensure that the construction materials are easily available in any market from a Small Town to a Metropolitan and keep the cost less than 1,50,000 INR ($2000). This team believes in the merits of shared knowledge and hence the design is OPEN-SOURCE and PUBLISHED on this website for the entire world. This exponentially increases the proliferation of this booth in all the places where it’s needed the most. Also, it is intended to spark and enable further innovation in this design, making it more useful.