By Laura French
ATLANTA — A Georgia mechanical engineering student whose parents are both paramedics has helped design and produce protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Georgia Tech Graduate Student Kentez Craig is part of a team of students and faculty at the university that has built thousands of face shields over the last few weeks, as well as about 200 intubation boxes to shield medical personnel performing life-saving procedures, according to NBC News.
Additionally, a face shield design created by Craig’s team has been shared with other manufacturers who have used it to mass-produce nearly 2 million shields for EMS and healthcare professionals.
Craig used his skills in water jet machining, which he says is faster than 3D printing, to personally build face shields around the clock, ultimately building more than 5,000 with his team that were distributed to hospitals across Atlanta.
Craig also worked with Georgia Tech Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Chris Saldana to come up with a foldable intubation box design that received emergency FDA approval in April. He is now working with Associate Professor of Heat Transfer, Combusion and Energy Systems Shannon Yee to design a prototype for a low-cost, portable emergency ventilator.
Craig’s parents, Jackie and Kenneth, say they are extremely proud of their son.
“It makes me feel wonderful because he’s saving my colleagues in the field,” Eastside Medical Center Paramedic Kenneth Craig told NBC.