It may not have been the original plan, but Emporia State’s Learning Technologies Department is developing a “cottage industry” of sorts for projects helping the COVID-19 response effort at both the personal and business level.
Learning Technologies started by creating 3D-printed masks for medical workers and later added face shields for use by medical workers and production employees. Those face shields are now the main focus, according to Director Rob Gibson.
Other products are either in development or in production. Among them: so-called “lip gloss savers.”
Learning Technologies is also making special keychain connectors so people can open doors or push elevator buttons without touching them. Both the lip gloss savers and keychain extenders are being given away on campus at this time.
Gibson says ideas for new products are coming in both from faculty and from students working with ESU’s entrepreneurship program. He says students are doing their best to support community needs first and foremost, and grants including one from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas and NetWork Kansas are helping the department make that happen. Gibson says the department is researching other grant opportunities to possibly expand the amount of items it can create.
Photos courtesy Emporia State Learning Technologies
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