#CaltechTogether: Paula Gaetos and Ian Roberts
Paula Gaetos: “For me, utilizing the Techlab’s resources to fabricate COVID testing specimen racks for the campus testing program really solidified a couple of things. One, the Caltech community is truly connected in ways that may not be possible in bigger research universities. The fact that a brief conversation between staff members could turn into a small but meaningful project like this that helped out the COVID response team is pretty heartwarming. And, two, it really makes the impact of technology like 3D printing tangible even in this little microcosm and underscores why the technology should continue to be accessible. Even though it’s just a drop in the bucket of what Caltech and the Caltech Library can do in response to the pandemic, I really feel grateful to be able to help in this way.”
Ian Roberts: “Normally, when we're working with the Caltech community, we're there to just give them an assist. We don't do design for them. This was an interesting project because it was a chance for me to design something somewhat from scratch. I went with a super basic geometric shapes concept using Tinkercad, a web-based modeling tool. I just took a test tube rack example and shrank it down to the right size for the vials that they were using. I already knew we wanted it to be easy for people to drop off the vials and the tubes needed to be kept at least 3 inches apart. Then, when I heard they were giving them a wipe down between each use to avoid cross contamination, and as we got more design requirements, we just kept on making new iterations until we came up with the best solution.”
Ian Roberts is an IT and system administrator for the Caltech Library. Paula Gaetos manages the Techlab as part of the library's circulation unit. Recently, the pair put the library’s Techlab resources to work designing and 3D-printing specimen tube collection racks as part of the campus COVID-19 surveillance testing program. Roberts came up with the design and Gaetos fabricated the racks. Currently, Gaetos is repurposing leftover filament to print face mask ear savers to reduce waste.
#CaltechTogether is a special series of #SoCaltech spotlighting the many ways members of our community are joining together to support one another and to take responsibility for our collective health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.