Volunteer-makers of BSTU named after V.G. Shukhov in the fight against COVID-19
The Belgorod State Technological University named after V.G. Shukhov is actively working on the creation and distribution of personal protective equipment, which is especially necessary in the current epidemiological situation. It is with the help of high technology that student volunteers produce antiviral protective masks.
The “Metamorphosis” Center for Youth Innovation Creativity of the regional reference university has become the base platform for the headquarters of volunteer makers who manufacture mounts for reusable masks, protective shields for medical workers and adapters for snorkeling masks. The regional community "Makers against COVID-19" is a student-volunteer BSTU. V.G. Shukhov and CYIC "Metamorphosis", as well as caring people of Belgorod, who seek to help doctors in this difficult time.
The production of personal protective equipment at the University of Technology began with the manufacture of simple fabric masks, the main part of which - plastic clips - were created by students using a CNC laser machine. In their native “Metamorphoses”, students from Shukhov made the first fabric masks of an elementary design: the fabric part was fixed with plastic clips, which in turn were connected with elastic bands, allowing the mask to stay on the face. Volunteers of the BSTU named after V.G. Shukhov was provided with masks of his own production for all residents of the dormitories, medical workers of the university, and security. And it is precisely in such masks that the Shukhovites who are on self-isolation are being helped.
In the center of creative workshops of BSTU named after V.G. Shukhov also engaged in the mass production of personal protective equipment: ordinary fabric reusable masks that people need to protect themselves from a new COVID-19 infection. They are distributed to students and employees of the university, in order to maintain their personal safety.
In addition, a team of volunteer makers began active work to create protective shields on high-tech equipment that cover absolutely the entire face. Volunteers design, print on 3D printers and raise funds for personal protection of medical workers who daily fight the spread of coronavirus infection in the Belgorod region. So, our volunteers, led by the director of the Center for Metamorphosis Viktor Babaev, produced and sent to medical institutions more than 300 protective shields and about 200 special clips (hairpins) for fabric masks.
“We started creating protective equipment more than a month ago. Then they began to study world experience and tried to develop affordable remedies. When they began to show the first results, no one believed us yet. Thanks to the support of our university sanatorium dispensary and personally the chief physician of the sanatorium of the BSTU Marina Olegovna, we were able to quickly test various models of devices and arrange delivery to the most popular foci of infection. Now we are working on the production of more serious means of protection for doctors working directly in close contact with infected people, ”said Viktor Babaev, director of the Metamorphosis CYIC, coordinator of the regional headquarters of Makers against COVID-19.
Thanks to the work of the regional headquarters on the basis of the CYIC “Metamorphosis”, many medical institutions of the Belgorod Region have already been provided with antiviral shields: the regional infectious diseases hospital, the city hospital No. 2, the city clinic No. 2, the Belgorod central district hospital, the city clinic No. 6, the oncology clinic and other medical institutions of the region .