Yuliana Quiroz 
UTRGV – Protective equipment used for COVID-19, continues to run scarce, but one college is working to fix that with 3D printing.
The UTRGV College of Engineering and Computer Science is creating face shields for healthcare workers by using this 3D printer.
This comes after a high demand of protective equipment or PPE, such as masks and face shields after the COVID-19 outbreak in early March.
We spoke to Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Doctor Noe Vargas about how they are using engineering equipment to help lessen the sting of the pandemic.
“What we do is that we find these models for masks, for face shields and other PPE equipment. We find it online and when I say we, it means a group of students are helping me from home and they are helping me find these different models. Then we evaluate and we find the best and then we print. We have a maker space in the College of Engineering and we print these samples,” said Vargas.
The Engineering Department continues to produce more than 40-plastic frames. The UTRGV Theatre Department has also helped distribute the necessary PPE to UT health RGV and the School of Medicine. The university’s networking has given students the opportunity to give back to healthcare workers on the frontline.
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