Six weeks of work, 80 students involved:the Student Unionhighlights the solidarity and engineering skills of theArts et Métiers student teamsArts et Métiers the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic. A look back at two solidarity initiatives by Arts et Métiers students, coordinated by the Student Union.
10,000 protective face shields made by Arts et Métiers students
Students from all Arts et Métiers campuses have produced more than 10,000 3D-printed protective face shields for businesses and individuals. The students worked tirelessly, with “the printers running from 6 a.m. until midnight.”To achieve this, a highly standardized production process was developed, and a collaboration with maker networks in France, Belgium, and Switzerland was established.
In total, 24 3D printers ran at full capacity throughout the lockdown. To produce all these face shields, 138 kilograms of plastic were needed. ForBenjamin Rogé, a third-year student in the Grande Ecole Program (Creda specialization): “It was an opportunity to engage with great enthusiasm and without any ulterior motive; it was a wonderful way to put our minds to work in a challenging situation.”
300 cloth masks are made every day in Metz
We sometimes worked from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.: it was a wonderful human experience, but we had to stay focused during those tough times.
At the Fabrique Résiliente in the city of Metz, students from the Metz campus and other volunteers managed to make 300 masks per day for six consecutive weeks. This project, led bythe Student Union, aimed to put the students’ technical skills in mask-making to use for the benefit of the community. The masks were then distributed free of charge. According to Benjamin Rogé:“The idea was to respond to an emergency with great responsiveness and a long-term vision in order to sustain the effort over time.” This artisanal production benefited from technical oversight and logistical support in compliance with health protocols. To produce these 300 masks daily, the students worked tirelessly :“We sometimes worked from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.: it was a wonderful human experience, but we had to stay focused amid these challenges” (Louis Catar, a second-year student in the Grande Ecole Program)
The students therefore quickly and spontaneously joined the broader movement, in keeping withArts et Métiers long-standing tradition of solidarity, by putting their engineering skills to use.Louis Catar concludes:“We learned a great deal from this experience. We were able to grapple with the realities on the ground. This is an important part of our engineering education.”
We learned a great deal from this experience. We were able to see the reality of the situation firsthand. This is an important part of our engineering education.
