How the engineering industry is helping battle COVID-19

Kelly Friel shares her insight into how engineers are helping the government find solutions for the issues caused by COVID-19 — as well as how more engineers can contribute

The spread and subsequent effects of COVID-19, both in terms of public health and financial impact, are unprecedented. 

So, it can be difficult for businesses and individuals to know exactly how to respond. If you work or are a business owner in the engineering industry, however, you may be much better placed to help battle the virus than you might think.

Below, I’ll take you through how engineers are battling COVID-19 already, and what else you can do to help tackle the global pandemic. 

What’s being done?

Engineering companies are joining the UK Government to provide solutions and support for the fight against COVID-19. 

For example, Bindatex, who provide specialist processing and cutting services, has tweaked its production to begin die cutting discs for filters. This will assist with the urgent production of ventilators for the NHS. 

3D printer Stratasys has announced a global mobilisation of the company’s resources to focus on face shields for medical professionals, while chemical company 

Ineos is working on building a new hand sanitiser factory in just 10 days. The factory will produce one million hand sanitisers per month to help with the European shortage. 

Almost every engineering business can help in some way so matter how far removed from the solution they may seem. This is well exemplified by ANT Telecom, who announced free availability of their automated monitoring service Aspect247 to safeguard lone employees.

It’s important to be innovative and think of ways that your company is uniquely placed to help support the government, in particular the NHS, in the battle against the infection. 

How can more engineers help?

Engineers in general have the necessary skills that can help identify or enact potential solutions, which can help facilitate or speed up efforts to beat the spread of the virus. This includes expertise in a range of areas, such as healthcare provision and systems (to help the NHS cope), national infrastructure and the public sector (to keep industry running as normal), economic adaptation/business management (to help aid recovery), and the supply chain (to meet new or changing levels of demand).

People with academic backgrounds (PhD candidates or higher) can help by becoming rapid reviewers of reports on COVID-19 for publication in journals, for Royal Society Open Science. If you have specific research expertise in Coronavirus, you can also provide expert insights directly to Parliament. 

Even if you have no applicable skills to help the fight against COVID-19, anyone with a computer can download programs such as Folding@home or Rosetta@home which can use both your GPU and CPU to help model protein structures. 

Offering up your processing power can help scientists understand and attempt to eradicate COVID-19, so we can all get back to normal sooner.

Although circumstances are changing fast, the engineering industry collectively has the necessary skills to help tackle COVID-19 and slow the rate of infection. 

Kelly Friel is with tool and personal protective equipment (PPE) providers Zoro.