People are looking to help with the COVID-19 pandemic in whatever way they can. For some, that can take the form of simple tasks, like helping run errands for those who are at higher risk of complications if exposed. For others, it can take the form of more complex technical tasks. In the case of Gui Cavalcanti, this assistance has taken the form of using his expertise as a robotics engineer to help establish a Facebook group devoted to creating open-source designs for the 3D printing of medical equipment.
Said Cavalcanti to CBC’s Day 6, “We have been selectively picking people who are doctors, who are medical transcriptionists, who are researchers, scientists, engineers. We have been putting them into a higher-level organization which is essentially at this point a flash NGO.” Cavalcanti notes that the emphasis of the group is not on the provision of medical supplies, but rather the centralization of concepts and ideas. Says Cavalcanti, “Our goal is to be a library to provide information,” with the purpose of helping local communities to establish their own supply chain, noting of the equipment shortages that “there’s absolutely no reason for that. We are surrounded by fabrication shops. We are surrounded by skilled makers in their garages. All of these people want to help because they’re all shut down. They need something to do.”
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