National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” together with Poltava Oil and Gas College have demonstrated an initiative and decided to help Poltava medical workers by using their laboratories to produce faceshields.
“Medical workers have become a part of risk group. According to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, more than 500 medical workers have contracted Coronavirus. A week has passed from the moment of initiative appearance to the completion of the protective means production. The initiative group consisting of academic staff of the university developed software to start printing the faceshields. The first supply party produced consisted of 50 faceshields, which we gave to the health workers of Poltava Regional Clinical Infectious Disease Hospital today. I sponsored the materials for them myself, and the staff arranged the production process,” - Rector, Professor Volodymyr Onyshchenko.
The authors of this idea and the faceshield design developers are the academic personnel of the Department of Architecture and Town Planning - Associate Professor Kostiantyn Trehubov and Assistant Professor Andrii Koniuk. Faceshields are designed to protect not only eyes, but also face skin left uncovered while wearing a usual personal mask. Such protection means can be disinfected and reused.
The philanthropic effort was supported and joined to by Poltava Oil and Gas College personnel. “Poltava Oil and Gas College has been functioning as a part of Yuri Kondratyuk National University for many years. We have a considerable experience in joint project realization, because the university has powerful scientific resources and ideas really worth being brought to life. When we learned about this initiative we could not stand aside considering that the college also has a 3D printer. As a rule, we use it for printing educational models, but now we use it as effectively as we can to produce the faceshields. Thus, we have protected our workers and given faceshields to the medical personnel, who need the maximal protection now,” added Director of Poltava Oil and Gas College of Yuri Kondratyuk National University Liubov Shumska.
“As of April 14, the hospital has 18 patients, two of them have the Coronavirus infection. We also hospitalize all patients with respiratory infections and pneumonia. That is why the personal protection means are incredibly important for us. I am thankful to the university staff for this design and the idea to help our medical workers. It is great that our neighbors care for us,” commented Medical Director of Poltava Regional Clinical Infectious Disease Hospital of Poltava Regional State Administration Natalia Svyrydenko.
This idea is not a one-time act; the university is going to continue providing Poltava medical workers with personal protective means.
Rector of the University Volodymyr Onyshchenko mentioned, that such an idea of university academic staff interested business representatives, “As of today, university has received cooperation offers from different private companies. Within agreed scientific and research work we are ready to consider the possibility of producing small parties of faceshields on a by-order basis. It is normal when innovations of academic staff are commercialized. If science is supported by financial investments, new possibilities for developing scientific and laboratory facilities of university emerge. And the scientific innovation of our staff being interesting for business is yet another prove of the education quality at university.”
PTV news channel video: http://poltavske.tv/events/21090?fbclid=IwAR3VABnUAmSBFWZNcnbg5At14w30Yd9FgpSRHqYp9V2LDX0OIU4MouB2twA
Media Center of
National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”
