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Engineering in action

CSUB makes face shields for COVID-19 health workers

By California State University, Bakersfield

April 15^th, 2020

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the devastation of the virus was becoming clear, Andrea Medina remembers looking at images of doctors and nurses in trash bags and bandannas and feeling helpless. The director of grants and outreach for the School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering at CSU Bakersfield turned to social media to see what could be done and discovered labs, businesses and individuals were working to make personal protective equipment for front-line healthcare workers.

“And I was thinking, well, we can do that. I shot an email to Bobby and some screenshots and said, ‘Do you think this is something we can help with?’”

Bobby Hartsock, a CSUB alumnus, works at the Fab Lab, the center of ingenuity and innovation at the university, where students and the public alike turn their inventions and ideas into reality with the help of CSUB staff and equipment, including 3D printers and lasers.

Hartsock knew that the Fab Lab had never been called upon before to help with a public health emergency.

But he was ready.

Engineering in action

Engineering in action

Engineering in action

Engineering in action

How do you make a face shield? Very carefully

When Medina challenged Hartsock to make personal protective equipment in the Fab Lab, his first thought was to investigate the fabrication of medical face masks. But he quickly realized the materials were too delicate for CSUB’s 3D printers. He and Medina shifted gears and discovered a face shield how-to guide a designer had posted online and invited the public to replicate to help protect healthcare workers.

Fabrication of the face shield consists of two processes: a laser is required to cut the plastic for the shield; a 3D printer is used for the more time-consuming and far more intricate creation of the headbands.

“Fortunately, the guy who designed the 3D component had already done a lot of testing to make it compatible with as many 3D printers as possible,” Hartsock said. “I thought we’d have a bunch of failures, but that hasn’t happened.

The challenge in making the face shields is not actually in the making – it’s in finding the materials and the tedious wait for the 3D printers to do their magic. In 24 hours, each of the 3D printers Hartsock is using is capable of making 24 face shields a day.

Engineering in action

Hartsock knew that to ramp up production, he’d need help from his “friends of the Fab Lab,” as Medina calls them. So he put out a call to businesses in town that use 3D printers and other equipment in order to increase the output of headbands.

One such business is Androids3D, owned and operated by George Simonoff, who was already working on adapting common items like scuba masks for personal protective equipment when he got the call from Hartsock.

“CSUB bought a bunch of material and got it to us and we’re just chewing that up on our printers,” Simonoff said. “It’s such trying times but at the same time, it’s as great way for us to remember what being united means. And I always try to promote things that CSUB is doing, especially the Fab Lab, and, being an engineer myself, it’s good to see we’re investing in kids coming up in technology.”

But the work of Hartsock, Simonoff and others is contingent on an increasingly high hurdle: the availability of the raw material needed to make the face shields.

The materials are trickling in, including an initial shipment of 600 feet of the plastic used to make the shields. That much material should make about 2,400, Hartsock said.

“It’s engineering in action,” Medina noted. “Filling a need. It’s working with what you have."

He added, "As an engineer and engineering major, that’s what they’re being taught to do: Here are your materials. Make it work. I also have to sing Bobby’s praises. These are the kind of people we’re producing for the community. Problem solvers.”

Engineering in action

Engineering in action

Engineering in action

Engineering in action

Engineering in action

Engineering in action

CSUB’s University Advancement division, which is responsible for securing funding for students and crucial initiatives, is funding the manufacture of the face shields through an account called the CSUB Fund.

“At times like this, it is essential to be able to have the flexibility to respond to the needs of our community, which also are the needs of our university,” said Victor Martin, vice president for University Advancement. “The CSUB Fund has made such a difference in a number of lives and now we have a chance to help even more people.”

For Medina, the Fab Lab’s willingness to jump into action when the need for protective gear became obvious is just one example of many that CSUB stands ready to assist the region.

“We love our community, and so it feels amazing to be able to provide a service in this way,” Medina said. “As a university, we’re still impacting people’s lives, even though we’re locked indoors.”

Engineering in action

By the numbers

16

Number of face shields the Fab Lab produces in a day

100

Number of face shields that can be produced in a day with community support

12

Hours it takes to produce four headbands

30

Seconds it takes to cut two plastic face shields

$1.50

Cost of one face shield

9.5 by 9.5

Dimensions, in inches, of a face shield

24/7

Time that the Fab Lab runs its 3D printers for the face shield project

Engineering in action

Engineering in action

Engineering in action

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Footnotes

Story by Jennifer Self, director of public affairs and communications; Photos and video by Juan Rodriguez, media production specialist

FootNotes

Story by Jennifer Self, director of public affairs and communications; Photos and video by Juan Rodriguez, media production specialist

© 2026 California State University, Bakersfield

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