Coronavirus: LI School Touts Solution To Face-Shield Shortage

STONY BROOK, NY — A small group of high school students and faculty from The Stony Brook School came up with a solution that can be produced in their STEM Lab and, potentially, across the United States: protective face shields at a fraction of the originally expected time and cost to combat the new coronavirus, the private school at 1 Chapman Parkway, Stony Brook, announced Friday in a news release.

Stony Brook University Hospital recently reached out to the community to secure use of 3-D printers to produce face shields. The hospital's design would take roughly 3-and-a-half hours per shield, and it sought to commission 5,000 shields per usable printer. When the Stony Brook School heard this, STEM faculty Stan Winston and Jeremy Donovan thought they could come up with a much more efficient solution with the help of their highly-skilled students.

In a little over 24 hours, Winston presented the idea to his classes—in virtual classrooms since the outbreak of the pandemic—and a prototype was made. After the students overcame three major roadblocks, a solution was found. Instead of a time-intensive 3-D print, a face shield constructed with the STEM Lab’s laser cutter could be made in 35 seconds. With the new design and process, about 100 can be made each hour at a cost of under 50 cents each, and the school will be producing at least 5,000 of them for Stony Brook University Hospital.

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The face shields produced by the Stony Brook School will only be used at Stony Brook University Hospital, but the school will release the design for the use of anyone across the nation with laser-cutting technology, a school spokeswoman told Patch.

Students instrumental in coming up with this solution were Stony Brook School sophomores Cole Spier and Tiger Winston, and junior Ethan Magnuson.

"Our students are committed to serving the world with their character and leadership," Winston, director of STEM Education at the Stony Brook School, stated. "With their years of problem-solving experience in our STEM courses, along with a huge community effort, we have reached a great solution to a pressing issue facing our country today."

Stony Brook University Hospital accepted the school’s design and proposal Thursday, according to the school. Stony Brook University will be releasing the design for widespread use to help stop COVID-19 from spreading.

Stony Brook University Hospital connected with Stony Brook University and Stony Brook School about the 3-D printing of masks earlier in the week. The university's i-CREATE lab designed certain parts of the face shields to be replaceable so medical personnel can change them out, allowing for a more sanitized product. The Stony Brook School students and staff then spent the week streamlining the design and manufacturing process of the face shields.

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