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s the country came together in the spring of 2020 to help out fellow Americans during the novel coronavirus pandemic, University of Alabama alumni and students also stepped up to the call to produce protective equipment and serve others. Nathan Eads, a freshman mechanical engineering student, teamed up with his friend Max Seidel, a mechanical engineering student at Northeastern University, to serve their hometown of Atlanta by creating face shields using 3D printers. Their project, called Atlanta Face Shields, had produced 4,000 shields as of early July. “With our sister organizations around the city we have produced upwards of 25,000 units of various PPE,” Eads said.
His role in the project is to manage volunteers, allocate materials to 3D printing volunteers, schedule the retrieval of printed materials and keep an inventory of the parts. “I also set up and recruited another set of volunteers to assemble these parts at our bi-weekly assembly sessions,” Eads said. As the electrical design team leader of the Bama Racing Team and an employee in UA’s additive manufacturing lab, The Cube, he learned a lot about 3D printing this past school year. “In both positions, I was able to greatly expand my knowledge of 3D printing. I think these two roles were extremely impactful on the work I did on this project,” Eads said. He wanted to stay busy during quarantine, and he figured the best thing he could do was to help in the pandemic response with his friend. But, that doesn’t mean it was easy. “Frankly, it was pretty stressful, especially early on when we were receiving lots of attention and funding before we had really produced any results. Once we got our rhythm down, however, things started to be much more enjoyable,” Eads said. The project is possible because of donations received through a crowdfunding site and volunteers giving their time, materials and equipment to help.
Clara Robbins, a 2017 chemical and biological engineering alumna, is the assistant master distiller and quality manager at the distillery.
DRIVING INNOVATION
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