The Wright Education Building, normally buzzing with students, now stands mostly silent – but one room in the building has been staying busy. The Make, Innovate, Learn Lab (MILL), a makerspace full of equipment meant to empower students to be creative, has a new and potentially life-saving job: it’s being used to create face shields to protect people in healthcare and emergency services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adam Maltese, Associate Professor and Director of the MILL, wanted to figure out a way to help when he kept hearing friends in the medical field say they didn’t have enough protective gear. He and Mark Smith from IU Opera started worked together, with Smith sourcing material for the shields, and after making a prototype they were able to create a face shield through a simple, multi-step process.