Penn alums use 3-D printers to make face masks for local medical workers

Shielding those in harm'southward way

Iv Penn alums put their startups on hold to 3D-print face shields for Covid-19 frontline workers in Philly, and across

Apr. 06, 2020

Approximately 700,000 people attended the Eagles Super Basin victory parade in 2018.

John Gamba hopes that even more turn out, when the pandemic is over, to thank our frontline healthcare workers.

"We should have them become down Broad Street, stop upwards at the Rocky Steps, and have more than people come out to cheer for these unbelievable people who are doing so much, so selflessly. We really do demand to honor them, recognize them and celebrate them," says Gamba, a 1992 Penn alum and serial entrepreneur who'south currently the first-always entrepreneur-in-residence at Catalyst at Penn'southward Graduate Schoolhouse of Instruction.

For Gamba, the pandemic is personal: His mother worked as a nurse at the Infirmary of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), and many of his closest friends are nurses and healthcare workers.

"This moment that we face is as [awful] or perhaps fifty-fifty worse than what happened on nine/xi. It'south tragic to hear and see the pleas from people calling every day from hospitals and on the forepart lines of what really is a war," says Gamba.

So he was thrilled and grateful to join more than contempo Penn alums and entrepreneurs Tiffany Yau, Michael Wong, and Evan Weinstein on Project SHIELDS, an all-volunteer movement based out of Pennovation Works to use iii-D printers to create NIH-approved face shields, 24 hours a day.

Face shields are used every bit a protective barrier and in conjunction with masks, similar the much-needed N95. They serve as a barrier to the droplets or "splatter," as the Covid-19 particles have come to be referred to.

Yau, Wong and Weinstein graduated from Penn more than 25 years after Gamba, but their mission-driven arroyo to entrepreneurship has, over the last few years, catapulted them into the local and national spotlight: Yau created the nonprofit Fulphil, which teaches high school students social entrepreneurship; Wong, InstaHub, which reduces buildings' energy waste with innovative engineering science; and Weinstein, Cocoa Press, which creates 3D-printed artisanal chocolate. Wong and Weinstein are both based at Pennovation Works.

Like everyone today, the foursome has been horrified by the toll of Covid-19, and how frontline healthcare workers, deprived of essential Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), are risking their lives to help others. So they decided to pool their commonage know-how and resources to do something most it.

"This moment that we face up is equally [awful] or maybe even worse than what happened on 9/11. Nosotros are seeing such an urgent need, life-and-decease situations, to answer to this Covid crunch. It'southward tragic to hear and see the pleas from people calling every day from hospitals and on the front lines of what really is a war," says Gamba. "So nosotros see our missions as: How can we get the most personal protective equipment out to the people who need it nigh, in the fastest menstruum of fourth dimension?"

The team doesn't care if recipients tin pay, or where they're located, or how they're struggling. They but want to aid.

Within iv days of posting a GoFundMe, Project SHIELDS received more than $24,000, which they used to purchase 12 additional 3-D printers, to more than double their current inventory of 10 printers; this will allow them to more than double their output, which is currently 100 masks per day.

They have a $ten,000 pledge on the way, but emphasize that any corporeality counts: $20 can encompass the cost of every bit many as twoscore shields. Wong and Yau have pulled several all-nighters to staff the machines, but the team is working towards automating them, to relieve that burden.

Several other shield-making endeavors have popped upwardly around the region. James Hartling from Cognizant Softvision is partnering with two Philly local engineers, Omer Dekel of Ontario Systems and Vikram Agrahar of PhillyDIY, to create shields (their GoFundMe lives hither). And 14-year-erstwhile Louie Beardell has been making them as well.

"Nosotros're actually careful about listening to the needs of the people who are on the front lines, instead of just dictating what we think they need. We're trying to be very responsive to co-construct this approach," Gamba says.

Project SHIELDS stands out for its chapters, for its adaptability and for its direct access to healthcare workers' insight: They're welcoming healthcare workers to Pennovation to try on the shields and requite instant feedback, and they're brainstorming additional ways to support the workers, peradventure past providing disinfectants or parts for ventilators.

"We're actually careful nearly listening to the needs of the people who are on the front lines, instead of only dictating what nosotros call up they need. Nosotros're trying to be very responsive to co-construct this arroyo," Gamba says.

They're also in a wholly sterile environment: Everyone involved in the projection—including 10 volunteers, who are taking time away from their mean solar day jobs to help—wears gloves and masks; stations are regularly sanitized; and Wong even 3D-printed a device to allow people to open doors without handling knobs.

They're hearing from physicians, paramedics, technicians, ambulance workers; they're hearing from New York and Maryland, Massachusettts and California. They want to help equally many people every bit possible, with an extra focus on helping their beloved Philadelphia.

"This is the place that we've called home for more than four years now," says Yau, whose father is a family medicine doc working at four unlike hospitals in 50.A. This is personal for her, as well.

With an eye towards increasing their output to 200 to 300 shields per day, they hope to supply Penn, Jefferson, Mercy, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, and anyone else in the region who reaches out. To scale on an fifty-fifty bigger level, they need more fiscal donations through their GoFundMe; they also welcome corporate partners.

"The more coin we get, the faster nosotros tin scale operations," says Wong. "We don't want to get stuck and say If we requite 500 here, we tin can't give elsewhere."

Wong is particularly interested in working with a partner who could assistance them track, in realtime, what the PPE needs are in Philly and around the country. (Calling all data geniuses! Please contact them here !)

And they desire to spread the message that everyone has a role to play in fighting this veritable battle.

"It's the feeling of helplessness that brought me to this project in the first place," says Weinstein. "I think every single person in Philadelphia has a manner to aid, whether that'southward staying home every bit much as possible, whether it's sharing the work of people who are trying to practise good piece of work, whether they take the ability to donate. I think everyone is feeling helpless because this is so large, the need is most infinite. But everyone doing something small actually adds upwardly."

And the sooner nosotros all step upwards, the sooner we tin can become past this, and get-go planning for a much-needed parade of ballsy proportions.

Photo courtesy Riley Gonta

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/shielding-those-in-harms-way/

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