Wearing masks is crucial to slowing the transmission of COVID-19, but they can often be hard to find. Yulia Malkova, an ECE PhD student advised by Professor Gary Friedman, came up with the idea of 3-D printing masks on her own to distribute them to essential workers like police officers and medical personnel.
Yulia has a 3-D printer at home that she was using for research, and she decided to put the printer to good use during the current pandemic crisis. Yulia downloaded a mask design suggests by dentists. Unfortunately, Yulia realized she did not have enough alcohol to sterilize them, so she turned to a reasonable alternative: vodka. She placed the 3-D printed masks in some plastic sealable bags filled with vodka, and let the vodka evaporate slowly; alcohol not only evaporates faster than water but it also sterilizes. Ultimately, Yulia did not have to touch the masks after sterilization.
Once complete, Yulia distributed these masks to dozens of police officers around her neighborhood, and is looking forward to increasing her mask-making efforts.