Johns Hopkins Medicine biomedical engineering student Christopher Shallal developed an initiative to keep health care teams safe by galvanizing community members to use 3D printers to make face shields. His mentors on the project were Elizabeth Logsdon, Ph.D., and Warren Grayson, Ph.D.

Shallal led the 3D Printing Hopkins Volunteer Network, which included students and staff members at Johns Hopkins campuses in Baltimore and members of the community. The team provided instructions and materials to volunteers who used their 3D printers to make reusable face shields that can be sterilized and provided to Johns Hopkins health care professionals working on the front lines of the pandemic.

To manage the 3D printers at Johns Hopkins, Shallal also organized undergraduate and graduate biomedical engineering students who remained in Baltimore during the pandemic to provide logistic support, and to produce shields and distribute them quickly. Thus far, their efforts have produced and circulated more than 8,000 face shields for health care workers. They also created and distributed more than 8,000 ear saver clips that wrap around the head to protect the back of the ear from the elastic bands on masks.