VNR: UH Mānoa student-led group creates mask sewing kits

Chris Ketter and Sergey Negrashov working in the College of Engineering's FabLab

Link to video and sound (details below): https://bit.ly/2wHXmta

What: Two University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa students are creating the sewing kits with fabric to produce a double-ply cloth mask, through UH Mānoa College of Engineering’s FabLab, a self-sustaining space designed for students to fabricate their designs.

Who: PhD students Sergey Negrashov (computer science) and Chris Ketter (physics).

Why: To create sewing kits for cloth masks designed for people to wear as a preemptive measure against possible asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19.

How: Negrashov and Ketter established the company Aloha Mask to gather volunteers, fabric donations and mask sewing kit users.

When: The production is underway. The goal is to make 400 mask sewing kits per day for all types of frontline workers.

Other Facts:

• More information on how to volunteer, donate fabric and instructions for assembling the kits is available on their website: alohamask.org. 

• Negrashov said it would take one person about 15 minutes to sew the mask with a sewing machine.

• The current version of the mask is designed to contain the virus and protect others if the wearer is ill. He eventually hopes to design a mask to protect healthy individuals from getting sick. 

• Negrashov is funding the effort using personal funds with the help of his co-workers at Oceanit. They are not looking for monetary donations right now, but are in desperate need of fabric and people willing to assemble the kits they produce.

Video: 

Sound:

Chris Ketter, UH Mānoa PhD student

(13 seconds)

“Today, we hope to produce more than a hundred kits. And, in fact, I got some volunteers that are willing to run this machine when we’re not here so if we can keep fabric flowing, we should be able to pick up production.”

(16 seconds)

“I don’t like walking around the community and watching our community workers completely unprotected. The people that work at the grocery stores and the convenience stores and the Uber drivers, and if there’s something that I can do to help then I don’t want to sit by and do nothing. I have to do something.”

Sergey Negrashov, UH Mānoa PhD student

(13 seconds)

“We’re trying to mass produce kits for face masks, some of them are simple cloth masks, some of them are made for healthcare workers that include a pocket for an N95 respirator. We’re trying to alleviate the shortage of PPE that is plaguing our island.”

(14 seconds)

“It’s been going very smoothly. We started prototyping on a much smaller laser cutter, but now with a bigger machine, we are able to produce at a rate of 30 seconds for a simple mask and one minute for a more complex mask and we’re hoping to scale production.”

Broll: (1:06-2:40)

Shots of Sergey Negrashov and Chris Ketter working in the College of Engineering's FabLab to produce face mask sewing kits.