Xander Karpowicz wants to provide a service to his community.

In the end, the fruits of his labor could very well save lives in the process.

Karpowicz, a mechanical engineering major at Bucknell University, plans to make forehead plates with 3D printers and donate them to hospitals in an attempt to protect them from the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’ve been working with St. Luke’s to try to make maybe a few hundred masks,” Karpowicz said. “It’s not really on the scale of some of the other projects, but it’s enough that it could make a real difference.”

Karpowicz, a sophomore at Bucknell, explained how the initiative came about.

“One of my professors showed the class one of the face shields he had made with the group at Bucknell, and I emailed him about it afterward to try to implement something like that here,” he said. “After seeing how easy it was to make (we do a lot of 3D printing and designing at Bucknell) with my current knowledge, I figured it was something relatively simple given the resources that would have an impact on the local community should the COVID-19 outbreak progress any further.”

Karpowicz said the printers will be borrowed from his alma mater, Lehighton Area School District, from which he graduated in 2018.

“The idea, at least in my head, was to try and take precautionary measures in anticipation of a much worse outbreak in the coming months,” he said. “I’m currently trying to create PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) for St. Luke’s, but I’ll try my best to make these materials for any hospital that has a need for them and can get in contact with me.”

While the need for PPE is an urgent global issue, efforts like Bucknell’s could be especially important for smaller local and regional health systems that don’t have the supply chains or purchasing power of larger systems, said Professor Nate Siegel, mechanical engineering, one of the faculty members leading the face shield project.

“They need designs that people can make locally,” Siegel says.

Even simple efforts can go a long way to protect doctors and nurses, group members said. The intubation tent that Professor Brandon Vogel, chemical engineering, is developing with input from Professor Eric Kennedy, biomedical engineering, consists of little more than a sheet draped over a frame, but it could help some of the most at-risk caregivers.

When a patient with COVID-19 is placed on a respirator, they must be intubated, meaning a tube is placed in their airway to keep it clear. To do this, the clinician must get very close to the patient, who is likely to cough or gag during the procedure and spread aerosols containing the virus. Vogel’s tent will cover the patient’s head during the procedure, while the provider slides their hands underneath and uses a camera to perform the intubation.

Mass-produced reusable masks, the group believes, could play a critical role in addressing shortages locally and globally, although ultimately, they hope the production phase of all of their projects will be short-lived. Ideally, a local manufacturer that’s better equipped for mass production will take on fabrication duties. Until then, Bucknell’s engineers will be there to help.

Karpowicz said, “Given the national shortage of items such as face shields, masks, etc. and the rapid spread of COVID-19, there is the potential to save lives and contain the virus should it begin spreading around Lehighton and the surrounding areas.

“The best way to minimize the impact of the virus on the local community is to be prepared for it.”

Karpowicz said he hopes the project he’s working on will make a difference.

“My primary goal is obviously to provide a service to the community,” he said. “If at least one person can find the PPE I want to make, then it will have been a worthwhile endeavor.”