Camas High School Robotics Join Forces to Help Medical Professionals Combat COVID-19

CAMAS, Wash. - March 29, 2020 - PRLog -- The students and mentors of the Camas High School (CHS) and 4-H Clover Bots Robotics Teams, and CHS Science Olympiad manufactured eye masks and face shields to keep doctors safe while they are at the front lines of COVID-19.

The original idea was from a group of Science Olympiad students who posted a website explaining how to help out during the pandemic. From there, the idea ignited as mentors and students of the CHS 2471 Robotics team worked quickly to create facial and optical masks. HP, MC Laser Labs, and the Camas School District started the students off with supplies and equipment to produce the masks and eye shields from their houses and garages. "We knew this would make a difference in our community and to the healthcare providers", said Gabe Guo, President of the CHS Robotics Team. "As a result of our work we have created more than seven hundred masks and counting, and we hope other schools are inspired to do the same."

Here's how it works:

1. Design: The team took in multiple designs to ultimately create a two-piece snap-together frame using Computer-aided design (CAD) software so that more frames could be printed at a time.

2. Manufacturing: Using a combination of student, school and sponsor 3-D printers and lasers cutters, the team produced over 700 eye shields so far,  and are on track to finish 72 face shields by the end of the month.

3. Assemble: The frames are then distributed to the healthcare providers who assemble the protective wear by snapping together the frame and sliding the lens on.

"We are trying to make our production line as efficient as possible, and are currently able to produce 150 frames per day at less than $0.22 apiece.  Providence has already received hundreds of these shields and multiple other medical centers from the Portland-Vancouver area have reached out to us in order to get personal protective equipment for their staff," said Cole Herber, Sophmore Robotics Design Lead.

"We've grown this to multiple teams and organizations to deliver a solution with such a big impact, and both the demand and the support continue to grow," said Brian Cavill, a student mentor, and retired firefighter and paramedic. I'm proud of the team and proud to be a part of it."

If you want to help out, visit the GoFundMe or team websites to donate money or materials.
gf.me/u/xsd5i2.
https://team2471.org/infinite-resource/