URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Fall_2020_Melissa-McCarthy

A team of 75 collaborators working together to provide face shields for health care workers. RHODE ISLAND RAPID SOLVERS

written by CHRISTOPHER BARRETT ‘08

As the coronavirus powered through Rhode Island in early 2020, URI Engineering Associate Professor Kunal Mankodiya saw an opportunity for 3D printers to produce the components needed for face shields. Through a quickly formed initiative called Rhode Island Rapid Solvers, Mankodiya and a mix of 75 URI researchers, students, and community partners assembled approximately 8,000 face shields for first responders and health care facilities. Officials praised the initiative for filling a critical void in the supply chain. Mankodiya and his team said they are just getting started. “This network we have created has tremendous value,” Mankodiya said. “The team learned how to communicate a technical problem with everybody in their own language so they can understand it clearly and then we can develop a plan to solve it.” The group includes not only academic researchers but also staff, students, medical experts, fundraisers, and community partners such as FabNewport, a Newport, RI-based nonprofit that encourages the use of 3D printers for creative problem solving. At

the height of the pandemic the array of expertise meant the group was collaborating to bring a concept from drawing board to 3D printer in just two weeks. University researchers studied obscure scientific papers on materials employed in face shield production and asked anyone they could find about the material’s properties. They heard from doctors

Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi Associate Professor Industrial and Systems Engineering

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