Faculty from the College of Arts + Architecture (CoA+A) led an online discussion hosted by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) on April 3. The discussion, “Schools Respond to the Pandemic,” is part of a series presented by the ACSA as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak called “Pivot to Online Learning.”
CoA+A faculty presenters were Dr. José Gámez, interim director of the School of Architecture; Alex Cabral, director of the SoA/Storrs fabrication labs; Robby Sachs, Storrs fabrication labs manager; and Heather Freeman and Thomas Schmidt, professors in the Department of Art & Art History. These faculty, along with faculty from the College of Computing and Informatics, the Lee College of Engineering, and the local private school Charlotte Latin, have been producing personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare providers, using 3D printing technology.
Their work, including design innovations that have greatly accelerated production, has already become a model for others who wish to support the healthcare industry during the crisis. UNC Charlotte faculty have been contacted by academic communities in states as far away as Virginia, Iowa, Colorado, and California.
“We’ve begun sharing our work to get their labs running and hopefully helping with the impending national shortage of supplies,” Cabral said in a recent article in Inside UNC Charlotte.
Read more about their efforts in this article in The Charlotte Post.