A CA L L FOR ENG I NE E R S
SAV I NG T H E WOR L D I N T I ME S OF C R I S I S
A CA L L FOR ENG I NE E R S
SAV I NG T H E WOR L D I N T I ME S OF C R I S I S
such an amazing team of EngD students and research staff on-the-ground has been essential to the success of this project. The first 5 weeks were pretty intense balancing the needs of my students for a year two module and lining things up for this project. It’s fair to say ‘normal’ working hours went out the window!
for dispatch. Music and great company keeps spirits high as we continue to assemble, improve our process and prepare for higher production! What was it likeworking remotely with the project team to quickly respond to the pandemic? David O’Connor set up a communications tool called Discord (typically used for gaming) which brought all of the student side of the team together initially, and then myself and a few industry friends and contacts were added. Being a member of staff, I was able to contact senior colleagues and gatekeepers directly via emails and virtual meetings. Things happened very quickly. The advantage of this platform was that when information or support was required urgently, one of the team picked it up, at all times of the day. The responsiveness of the students involved has been highly professional and absolutely amazing! I think the team all know people who work in healthcare or are affected by this pandemic, so being able to channel this concern into ‘doing’ has been a big part of this for the team; it has also added some ‘normality’ for those going into the University to manufacture the visors, given a shared purpose, and a chance to see
other people – albeit from a safe distance. Through working with staff, students, researchers and industrial contacts, we have brought a great mixture of experience and ideas into the melting pot, which has really helped us innovate and solve problems as they arose. Do you think this response to the pandemic will inspire others to think differently about what engineering is and howengineers can impact theworld? I hope so! It certainly reflects how a team of staff, students and external contacts can work together dynamically to fulfil a societal need. Many of our students come from the ‘Maker Hub’ in Swansea University. This is a space where students can spend an afternoon a week using 3D printers, laser cutters, and more to ‘hack’ things up, make stuff, and learn-by-doing. Students are encouraged to work on non-assessment work, so they can explore new ideas and innovations. I would love to see the Maker Hub expand following this project, and gain a larger, and more regularly accessible space to be created for the group, and future students.
Tackling the climate crisis
CaitlinMcCall (EngD) To start each day, we follow a strict
process of applying PPE followed by a full clean down of our working environment. A quick socially distanced team brief and assessment of what needs to be done in the day gets everyone ready and up to speed. There are four main stations around the large manufacturing room that we rotate around. Firstly, we have 3D printers constantly printing the headbands. After eight hours, these are removed from the printing beds and moved to the next station for quality inspection and finishing. Then, we assemble pre-cut elastic and foam, with the PET visor and printed headbands. The face visors are labelled with their part numbers and CE mark. After a final inspection, they’re ready for bagging. Once bagged, face visors are placed into labelled boxes according to the requests that come in, and are ready
In May 2020, The Guardian announced it would use terms such as “climate crisis” or “climate emergency” to describe global climate change. Our research here at Swansea University has multiple focuses from computational engineering, to health and wellbeing, and in 2015, we opened the Energy Safety Research Institute (ESRI) with a vision of “building the bridge to a sustainable, affordable and secure energy future.”
Areas of research within this building include inter-conversion of waste energy and resources, green hydrocarbon, sequestration of carbon dioxide, and the next generation of energy distribution. Read on to find out about some of the work that is going towards reducing the carbon footprint of humanity.
Acknowledgements: We must also acknowledge other colleagues and staff for their support at various stages of this project: In particular Professor Johann Sienz for his senior management team support, Dr Naomi Joyce and Professor Mary Gagen for their project management support (amongst other talents). Professor Davide Deganello for initial visor material contacts and supply.
Russ Huxtable for expediating funds for CE certification. Volunteer technicians for initial production runs. Kevin Thomas for facilitating access. FSG tooling – external company creating the injection moulding tool for mass production. Martijn Gommeren – engineering contact and friend
ENG I NE E R I NG AT SWANS E A UN I V E R S I T Y
ENG I NE E R I NG AT SWANS E A UN I V E R S I T Y
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