RCEL COVID-19 Response
Mission: Help address the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for our healthcare providers in the Texas Medical Center and for essential workers in the Houston area.
OVERVIEW
As hospitals and healthcare providers in Harris County and across the country face shortages in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL) has partnered with Rice engineering faculty to help meet the need for face shields at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas.
APPROACH
From the beginning, RCEL Faculty Director Fred Higgs recognized this situation as an engineering management challenge going beyond the design and building of face shields. He asked Ebony Wiley, MS Engineering Management from Case Western Reserve University and veteran engineering manager from General Electric, to lead the project. She recognized the need to have team members focused on 1) connecting with "customers" (healthcare institutions and government agencies) to understand their needs, 2) identifying practical designs, and 3) developing a supply chain for production. This would require coordination among multiple faculty, staff, and students, as well as manufacturing and supply companies, all working towards a single goal.
To tackle the project, the RCEL COVID-19 Response Team developed a three-pronged approach:
CUSTOMER RELATIONS
Team Lead:
George Webb
RCEL Industry Liaison
gwebb@rice.edu
(713) 348-2704
The Texas Medical Center includes 11 major hospitals and countless other healthcare providers. The RCEL COVID-19 Customer Relations team works with healthcare institutions to ascertain their needs regarding type and quantity of personal protective equipment (PPE).
If you are a hospital, healthcare provider, or government agency in need of face shields, please contact George.
TECHNOLOGY
Team Lead:
Eleazar Marquez
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
eleazar.marquez@rice.edu
(713) 348-3318
The RCEL COVID-19 Technology Team works with faculty from several departments at Rice University to determine the practical designs to implement and produce.
SUPPLY CHAIN
Team Lead:
Kaz Karwowski
RCEL Executive Director
klk5@rice.edu
(713) 348-2359
Materials and manufacturing capacity to produce personal protective equipment are in high demand. The RCEL COVID-19 Supply Chain Team works with the manufacturing and supply companies to help meet the needs of healthcare institutions for considerable quantities of protective face shields.
If you are a manufacturer or supplier who can assist in producing face shields, please contact Kaz.
If you wold like to support RCEL's CODI-19 response effort, please make a designated gift to RCEL at this link:
- Click to donate.
- Choose "Rice Center for Engineering Leadership General Support Fund" from Designation menu.
- After entering an amount, please type "RCEL COVID-19 Response" in the Special Instructions field.
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PROTOTYPING
In partnership with Rice University Moody Center for the Arts, face shield design prototypes are created for review and feedback by Texas Medical Center hospitals and institutions to determine their efficacy, and to give valuable feedback to making the shields better. Rob Purvis, Workshop Director at the Moody Center, has created a number of design prototypes for this purpose.
OUR TEAM
The RCEL COVID-19 Response Project is a collaboration of RCEL and Rice University faculty, staff, and students.
Team Lead:
C. Fred Higgs III
RCEL Faculty Director
Project Manager:
Ebony Wiley
RCEL Leadership Initiatives
ebony.wiley@rice.edu
Customer Relations Lead:
George Webb
RCEL Industry Liaison
gwebb@rice.edu
(713) 348-2704
Technology Lead:
Eleazar Marquez
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Supply Chain Lead:
Kaz Karwowski
RCEL Executive Director
RICE FACULTY AND STAFF
Cortlan Wickliff, Associate Vice Provost - Academic Affairs & Strategic Initiatives
Prathamesh Desai, Research Scientist, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Caleb Kemere, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Department of Bioengineering
Robert Raphael, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Jacob Robinson, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Department of Bioengineering
Rob Purvis, Workshop Director, Moody Center for the Arts
Amanda Prestia, RCEL Marketing & Events Specialist
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
Alejandro Toscano Rodriguez, senior, mechanical engineering major
Hang Shu, senior, mechanical engineering major
Hannah Andersen, junior, bioengineering major
Nimisha Krishnaswamy, junior, bioengineering major
Rahul Kilambi, junior, mechanical engineering major
Ethan George, sophomore, chemical & biomolecular engineering major
Alan Lopez, freshman, undecided engineering major
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Joshua Wagner, doctoral student, Department of Mechanical Engineering
If you are part of the Rice University community and would like to partner with us, please contact Ebony Wiley, RCEL COVID-19 Response Project Manager, ebony.wiley@rice.edu.
NEWS
RCEL donates protective face masks to Ronald McDonal House in Texas Medical Center
May 14, 2020
RCEL donated fifteen 3-D printed face shields to the Ronald McDonald House in Houston, a charity that provides a place for families to call home so they can stay close by their hospitalized child at little to no cost. These re-usable shields, created by Rob Purvis at Rice’s Moody Center for the Arts, will be used by RMH staff to protect staff and guests. In addition to working with local manufacturers to help meet the needs of large institutions, RCEL is proud to donate face shields to small medical and charitable organizations such as RMH as they continue to battle the spread of COVID-19.
RCEL donates protective face masks to Shriners Hospital for Children
May 6, 2020
Another day, another donation! Kaz Karwowski, RCEL Executive Director, and George Webb, RCEL Industry Relations Director, delivered over 500 respirator masks to Shriners Hospital for Children in the Texas Medical Center. Shriners, like many hospitals, is seeing a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) as the region responds to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coca-Coloa donates PET to Rice/Moody face shield project
May 5, 2020
A 1200 yard roll of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic sheeting arrived at the Moody Center for the Arts last week - a donation from the Coca-Cola Company. PET, a transparent plastic used around the world for soft drink and water bottles, is also used to create the plastic shields of personal protective face shields, and will be used by Workshop Director Rob Purvis to continue his work in creating face shields for the TMC and other organizations in and around Harris County. Coca-Cola has donated plastic sheeting to a number of universities and PPE production companies/suppliers.
April 27, 2020
"What began as a 3D printing effort initiated by Fred Higgs, faculty director of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL), has gathered tremendous momentum and is scaling up with the goal of producing up to 600,000 face shields." Check out this spotlight from Rice Public Affairs.
April 20, 2020
Rob Purvis, director of the workshop and makerspace at the Moody Center, is spotlighted by Rice Public Affairs for his work with the RCEL COVID-19 Response project, as well as his support of other initiatives on campus and around Harris County. Thank you Rob for all your hard work and dedication! Read the full article here.
April 7, 2020
Thanks to RCEL Faculty Director Fred Higgs and Prathamesh Desai, Research Scientist in Mechanical Engineering, for tracking down 475 protective face shields to donate to Harris County Public Health as they respond to the COVID-19 health threat. George Webb, RCEL Industry Liaison, and Amanda Prestia, Marketing and Events Specialist, received the packages and facilitated delivery to HCPH. #worldhealthday