Pivoting to Ventilators: An Expert Q&A with Pointfar Automation’s President Kash Behdinan (Part 1)

COVID-19 has created an unprecedented global need for ventilator machines. As medical suppliers scramble to prevent shortages, other companies are stepping in to do what they can. Automation professionals around the world are going above and beyond to help fight the spread of COVID-19. The International Society of Automation (ISA) plans to feature some of those outstanding people and projects on our blog. 

Pointfar Automation recently announced that they have designed a digital twin model for manufacturing ventilators. They are making this software available for free to any companies interested in doing so. We sat down with Pointfar's president, Kash Behdinan, to learn more about these efforts. 

Behdinan is past director of the Process Management and Control Division of the ISA, past co-chair of the ISA Montreal Symposium, and 2017 program chair for the Process Control and Safety Symposium (now called the Process Industry Conference), as well as chair of the 61st International Instrumentation Symposium. He is an adjunct professor California State University Northridge, where he teaches in the department of manufacturing systems engineering and management, the mechanical engineering department, and the systems and operations management department. Behdinan received his PhD in manufacturing engineering from the University of Southern California.