Print For The Cure
A Project Funded by Alliance of Chinese Americans San Diego
Michael Zeng
Team Members
Subash Shibu, Ashwin Baluja, Nicholas Liu, Andrew Kessler
Dr. Jaiclin (technical advisor)
Subash Shibu, Ashwin Baluja, Nicholas Liu, Andrew Kessler
Dr. Jaiclin (technical advisor)
Background
The COVID-19 situation has resulted in severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the US. After my robotics season (and our Houston World Championship originally scheduled in April) got cancelled, I started looking into what I can do to help in the situation. With my PRUSA 3D-printer, I started printing face shields and eventually got my whole robotics team with seven 3D-printers involved and also mobilized many local 3D printer enthusiasts through on-line zoom training on 3D printing PPE basics.
Through the last five weeks, my team has made and delivered over 2000 face shields to over 100 hospitals around the country. Throughout the process, I noted a great deal of inefficiency in the coordination between the requestors of PPE (doctors and other health care workers in the most part) and the donors of PPE (many of the individual 3D printer enthusiasts who want to contribute to the cause just like me). Oftentimes they cannot find each other very easily. I had the idea of creating a platform (in the form of a website or app) to enable that connection online.
The COVID-19 situation has resulted in severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the US. After my robotics season (and our Houston World Championship originally scheduled in April) got cancelled, I started looking into what I can do to help in the situation. With my PRUSA 3D-printer, I started printing face shields and eventually got my whole robotics team with seven 3D-printers involved and also mobilized many local 3D printer enthusiasts through on-line zoom training on 3D printing PPE basics.
Through the last five weeks, my team has made and delivered over 2000 face shields to over 100 hospitals around the country. Throughout the process, I noted a great deal of inefficiency in the coordination between the requestors of PPE (doctors and other health care workers in the most part) and the donors of PPE (many of the individual 3D printer enthusiasts who want to contribute to the cause just like me). Oftentimes they cannot find each other very easily. I had the idea of creating a platform (in the form of a website or app) to enable that connection online.
Goal
Develop a "Print For The Cure" web platform aiming to mobilize all makers to combat the critical shortage of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). With this platform, we want to connect makers/donors capable of producing PPE to essential workers/requesters in need. Essential workers can “request” for their needed PPE items directly on-line and individual makers can search for close-by requests, “claim” and deliver directly.
Develop a "Print For The Cure" web platform aiming to mobilize all makers to combat the critical shortage of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). With this platform, we want to connect makers/donors capable of producing PPE to essential workers/requesters in need. Essential workers can “request” for their needed PPE items directly on-line and individual makers can search for close-by requests, “claim” and deliver directly.
Method
Web development work (both front-end and back-end) and promotional activities needed once the web site is ready to launch.
How I envision the web platform to work in five steps:
1. Essential Workers can submit requests for PPE.
2. Donors (community 3D printer) must register through the website.
3. Anyone can browse PPE requests on a map, and registered donors can view requests nearest to them.
4. Registered donors can claim requests, after which they are connected with their requester.
5. Donors fulfill their claimed requests for PPE and arrange delivery with their requester.
Web development work (both front-end and back-end) and promotional activities needed once the web site is ready to launch.
How I envision the web platform to work in five steps:
1. Essential Workers can submit requests for PPE.
2. Donors (community 3D printer) must register through the website.
3. Anyone can browse PPE requests on a map, and registered donors can view requests nearest to them.
4. Registered donors can claim requests, after which they are connected with their requester.
5. Donors fulfill their claimed requests for PPE and arrange delivery with their requester.
Updates
(July 12, 2020)
Demand for PPE remains high but has been decreasing steadily for the last month, with about 11 requests coming in every day and 200 unfulfilled at all times. So far we have fulfilled over 1000 requests for PPE, which total just under 2000 pieces, ranging from face shields to touch-less door handles.
Many of our amazing front-line workers have shared photos of the PPE in use and donated to help the project continue.
Demand for PPE remains high but has been decreasing steadily for the last month, with about 11 requests coming in every day and 200 unfulfilled at all times. So far we have fulfilled over 1000 requests for PPE, which total just under 2000 pieces, ranging from face shields to touch-less door handles.
Many of our amazing front-line workers have shared photos of the PPE in use and donated to help the project continue.
Although the website, https://printforthecure.com/, has faced small setbacks, such as emailing systems failing, etc., we’ve always put in the work to fix it quickly and the website continues to run smoothly.
We’ve also added numerous features including a guide for donors to get started more easily, a leaderboard to provide some amount of incentive and reward our biggest donors
And a feature to sort requests by urgency. As the website developer, I’ve also printed thousands of pieces of PPE myself and personally shipped hundreds of packages.
