HMC-Wide Effort Produces Face Shields for Healthcare Providers

Thanks to a collaborative effort among Harvey Mudd College alumni, faculty and staff, the College has begun producing hundreds of face shields to be distributed to local healthcare providers.

Using an open-source design co-created by Elizabeth Johansen ’01, engineering professor David Harris, his son, Abraham, and HMC machine shop manager Drew Price have been printing the headband portion of the shields at their homes. Once printed, engineering professor Elizabeth Orwin ’95 collects the headbands then readies them for delivery by attaching the plastic shield and an elastic strap that helps secure the mask on the head.

Orwin finds local healthcare providers requesting the shields via GetUsPPE.org, a website that matches personal protective equipment donors with organizations in need. On May 6, Orwin made her first delivery of 35 shields to a rehabilitation facility in Pomona. As long as there is a demand for the shields, Orwin and other volunteers will continue to produce and deliver them.

Information and printing specs for the headbands can be found on the Design That Matters website. If you join the project or are conducting one of your own, we’d love to hear about it. Email HMC Communications at [email]communications@hmc.edu[/email] or tag us on Facebook (@harveymuddcollege), Instagram (@harvey_mudd) and Twitter (@harveymudd).