Lyles College of Engineering

Personal Protective Equipment Design Team

Dr. John McClain, a pulmonary critical care fellow, and Dr. Eric Day, a second-year internal medicine resident with UCSF Fresno, a major branch of the UCSF School of Medicine located on the Community Regional Medical Center campus, contacted the Lyles College in March to discuss the anticipated need for custom-designed PPE.

“We need protective equipment that is cheap to manufacture and designed to meet the needs of our doctors, nurses and other allied health professionals while caring for patients during the coronavirus pandemic,” Day said. “We already have a critical shortage of providers in the Central Valley, so we are obligated to give our workers maximal protection to prevent exposure and illness.”

As soon as faculty, students, and alumni were notified of the request, they stepped-up and began working from their homes and offices and began prototyping from their own 3-D printers to help address the need.

Once the design was completed. The materials were ordered with help from Fresno State President Joseph I. Castro and technology firm DPS Telecom, under CEO Bob Berry. Each face shield costs about $1.50 to produce. The team gathered 3-D printers from the Lyles College of Engineering, Library , Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and technology firm Five Microns to manufacture the shields.