“It’s a drop in the bucket, unfortunately, but it’s at least a drop,” said Kuceyeski, adding that these masks are an important way to buttress supplies for Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian. “I’ve been completely overwhelmed with the response of people volunteering their materials and their time and expertise.”
Visors and other protective gear are also being provided to Ithaca-area health care workers, including at Cayuga Medical Center. Scientists at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York, have already produced 200 face shields for local medical workers using 3D printers.
Kirstin Petersen, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, was forwarded Kuceyeski’s email by her department chair.
“She asked whether this was doable, and my partner (Nils Napp, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering) and I reached out to everyone we knew, and they reached out to everyone they knew, and the ball got rolling,” Petersen said. “People want to do anything they can, and everyone’s been sitting on their hands for so long, so when there was an organized call for help everybody jumped in.”
Using Weill Cornell Medicine’s specifications, faculty, staff, students, alumni and community members are 3D printing frames for face visors, ideally with PET or PETG (polyethylene terephthalate, or polyethylene terephthalate glycol-modified) filament, which can be sterilized under ultraviolet light. Those with laser cutters are also producing shields for the visors, said Jenny Sabin, the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture and associate dean for design initiatives at the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.
“With the support of Dean Meejin Yoon and our director of facilities, Frank Parish, we were able to immediately get our digital fabrication labs up and running at AAP,” Sabin said. “I’m operating machines in my lab; our students with 3D printers at home are printing and shipping visors directly to Weill Cornell Medicine; we have alumni architects with offices in New York City utilizing their 3D printers and reaching out to their networks. I’ve been in constant communication with a whole incredible outpouring of people willing to help.”
In fewer than three days, she said, the effort grew from two labs printing at AAP into a network of faculty, staff, students, alumni and other institutions and architecture departments across the country.
Printers are also cranking out masks at the College of Human Ecology, Cornell Tech, Cornell University Library, and Computing and Information Science. François Guimbretière, professor of information science, is putting several 3D printers used by his Information Science Introduction to Rapid Prototyping and Physical Computing class to work, both in his own home and in the homes of his students. “It’s very nice that we can use these resources to support the community,” he said.