Engineering Resilience

My mother warned me about COVID-19 early on, but the severity of the situation did not fully hit me until March, when the world shut down. The week of March 14th stays in my memory. Friday, I was in school, but by Monday, I could not leave my house. I did not go past my driveway for three months.

The pandemic is unprecedented, but it is struggle that builds strength, and if there is anything that we have learned from this global tragedy, it is that we can always draw on our creativity, courage, and ingenuity to make change--no matter how difficult our trials may be.

Creativity, courage, and ingenuity are also key characteristics of engineering, the process by which individuals identify problems, design and test possible solutions, and share their innovations with the world. Throughout the pandemic, we have depended on engineers to come up with the tools and strategies we need to embrace the temporary “new normal” of face masks, social distancing, and quarantines.

In Medellín, Colombia, robots deliver groceries to people affected by lockdown restrictions. In my hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, a robot with a UV light disinfects thousands of hospital masks every day. And NASA engineers have even designed a DIY necklace that buzzes to remind people not to touch their faces. But not all of COVID-19’s hero engineers are even trained in engineering.

In Ethiopia, eighteen-year-old Ezedine Kamil is working to solve the problems created by the pandemic despite still being in school studying natural science. He has not let his young age hold him back. Recognizing that his community’s frequent power outages would impact the effectiveness of automatic hand sanitizer dispensers, Kamil employed the engineering design process and dreamed up a contactless dispenser operated by a foot pedal. But he did not stop there. He also found a problem in his country’s hospital ventilator shortage, and leveraging the creative thinking of an engineer, he built a prototype out of a plastic bag, a cell phone, and a mechanical ventilator.

Meanwhile in Makassar, Indonesia, one tailor has used the engineering design process to help make communication easier despite masks. Faizah Badaruddin was born deaf, and she reads lips to understand those who do not use sign language. But with the COVID-19 outbreak, everyone began wearing masks, and Faizah found that it was difficult and sometimes even impossible for her and other members of the deaf community to interact with those around them while also staying safe.

She is not a trained engineer, but Faizah did what any engineer does when they encounter a problem: brainstorm possible answers. Working with her husband, Faizah designed face masks that included rectangles of transparent plastic to reveal people’s mouths. In her tiny tailor shop, Faizah drew the designs for the base of the face masks on fabric and then cut it out before getting to work at her sewing machine to add the plastic rectangles and ear straps. With limited resources and no fancy lab, Faizah constructed prototypes and shared them with others, running her own engineering test. And as for her results? Faizah’s innovative mask design--while it was similar to transparent masks available in other countries--was the first of its kind in her community. It changed lives by making it possible for people to overcome the communication barriers created by the pandemic.

Sometimes, it feels like all I do is stare into the Zoom camera. But learning about the ways that people all around the world are engineering solutions to COVID-19 gives me hope. We are not as far apart as quarantines and shutdowns make it seem, and as a global community, we have the creativity and inspiration needed to come out of the pandemic with newfound strength.

Annotated Bibliography:

Chanie, T. (2021, January 3). Young inventor helps Ethiopia’s COVID-19 crisis. DW.com, https://www.dw.com/en/young-inventor-helps-ethiopias-covid-19-crisis/a-53334966.
In this article, Chanie writes about an eighteen year-old inventor helping solve problems posed by COVID-19 in Ethiopia. This article provides a meaningful example of how young people are working to help their communities using engineering skills.

Garrett, A. (2020, June 26). NASA necklace fights coronavirus by reminding you not to touch your face. CNet, https://www.cnet.com/health/nasa-necklace-fights-Coronavirus-by-reminding-you-not- to-touch-your-face/
This article is about the buzzing necklace NASA engineers designed to help remind people to not touch their faces. It is a good example of how innovative engineers are being to respond to problems created by the virus.

McKenzie, B. (2020, April 15). UVa medical center staff creates a virus-battling robot. The Daily Progress.https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/Uva-medical-center-staff-create-virus-Battling- robot/article_d13a0c84-8dca-51b7-9cfe-efbbf56e2cd1.html
In this article, Bryan recounts how UVa infectious disease expert Dr. Carlene Muto led a medical team to innovate a solution to the shortage of protective gear in hospitals. This article provides an example of the collaboration and creative thinking that are characteristic of the engineering design process.

Meisenzahl, M. (2020, May 9). Softbank-backed delivery startup Rappi is testing out robots for contactless delivery -- take a look. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/delivery-startup- using-robots-in-colombia-to-avoid-coronavirus-2020-4?r=US&IR=T#the-four-wheeled-delivery-robots- have-orange-flags-to-call-attention-from-walkers-drivers-and-bikers-5
In this article, Meisenzahl writes about Colombian company Rappi’s innovative use of robots to deliver food, mail, and groceries to people affected by the lockdown. This article is meaningful because it shows how engineering has solved the major problem of contactless deliveries.

South China Morning Post. [South China Morning Post]. (2020, April 29). Indonesian-made transparent mask allows deaf people to lip read amid the Covid-19 pandemic [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5K9P0pu_oQ&feature=emb_title
This news video is about Faizah Badaruddin, a deaf Indonesian tailor making transparent face masks. It provides an important example of how even people who are not engineers can use the engineering design process to solve problems.