INNOVATION-May-June-2020

C O M M U N I T Y

ENGINEERING PROFESSORS SEIZE OPPORTUNITIES AMID COVID-19 IMPACTS

UVic normally hosts one of Canada’s top biomedical engineering labs, but COVID-related developments have prompted its program director, Dr. Stephanie Willerth, P.Eng., to repurpose it into a sort of community development hub that produces and assembles face shields for front-line health workers. Dr. Willerth and her team have partnered with Vancouver Island businesses, industries, and students to design and manufacture the shields for donation to health care workers, either through Vancouver Island Health Authority or directly to family doctors that need them.

The impact of COVID-19 on engineering and geoscience professionals, their businesses, and economies around the world has been abrupt and substantial. The virus has also had a major impact on engineering and geoscience students, who have experienced shifts in admissions, exams, approaches to instruction, and graduation events. But while on-campus activity at colleges and universities in Canada and around the world has quieted to a hush, the work of at least two BC engineering professors and their students has quickly shifted—and even intensified—for the sake of public health.

UVic professor and director of its biomedical engineer program, Dr. Stephanie Willerth, P.Eng., shows a face shield with components from a range of sources in the local community. P hoto : UV ic P hoto S ervices

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I N N O V A T I O N