The Badger Shield: From Fighting the Pandemic Locally to Protecting the World

As facilities around the globe scrambled to contain COVID-19, the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) surged dramatically. Manufacturers of the vital protective wear strived to fill incoming orders, yet due to the sharp increase in demand, many facilities quickly faced shortages. One facility that desperately needed face shields was the University of Wisconsin-Madison hospital. After their regular supplier ran out, hospital officials contacted engineers at the university on March 16, 2020, hoping they could help with the shortage. In response, a team of engineers from the University of Wisconsin- Madison endeavored to meet the growing demand for face shields—first within their area, and later, around the world.

Lennon Rodgers, Director of the Grainger Engineering Design Innovation Lab at UW-Madison, gathered a team of engineers and local manufacturers to design a shield that was simultaneously simple enough to produce quickly, yet effective enough to offer protection. Within five days, his team designed and manufactured a new face shield, called the Badger Shield. UW-Madison hospital officials quickly approved the new shield for staff to use, and the team provided the 1,000 face shields the hospital had asked for. They also published the Badger Shield online as open source and included their method of assembly, allowing manufacturers around the world to replicate it. Ford Motor Company was one manufacturer who used the online design to produce the shields. According to Rodgers, mass production was not an issue. Placon, a local manufacturer, estimated they could produce 5,000 shields each hour. Instead, as the Badger Shield gained interest, an increasingly important objective was to identify and organize the hospitals that needed face shields.

By April 3, 2020, more than one hundred organizations ordered a total of six million Badger Shields. The network of manufacturers spanned more than 120 organizations, and altogether distributed 1.8 million shields (Ziemer, 2020a). Nine months later, these numbers multiplied: requests had come from more than 300 organizations, and a network of 475 manufacturers (“COVID-19 Face Shield,” 2020), ranging from small shops to large companies around the globe, have altogether produced more than five million shields (“Shield-Net,” 2020). The engineers had proven their ability to accomplish the task of connecting people who needed PPE in an efficient and timely manner.

Rebecca Alcock, a biomedical engineering student from UW-Madison, and her colleagues had developed an optimization model to match buyers with manufacturers. The model sent pre-written emails to form matches “based on order quantity and urgency, production capacity and geographic location” (Ziemer, 2020a). Once a buyer and seller matched, they could communicate directly; crucially, this direct interaction prevented the bidding wars that had led to inequity among American hospitals. For the future, Alcock believes the model can be used for any situation where a certain product faces a sudden increase in demand.

As the Badger Shield’s success grew, Alcock did not stop there; she extended her mission to focus on distributing face shields to developing countries. An engineer from Engineers Without Borders (EWB) contacted the Badger Shield project team and asked about using their approach to produce and distribute shields in Guatemala. Alcock quickly formed strategies for local production and provided a framework to efficiently assess needs and obtain materials. Their expeditious success caught the attention of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Within four weeks, “the collaborative effort in [Guatemala] resulted in the distribution of 75,000 units of PPE” (Ziemer, 2020b). Countries who usually rely on external aid during a crisis are often left feeling hopeless when their customary sources of help are occupied themselves; however, as shown by this project, engineers can ensure that the needs of vulnerable populations are met.

A project that began with a small team of engineers and manufacturers expanded into a worldwide collaboration to distribute vital protective equipment. Developing the Badger Shield quickly was beneficial for hospitals, and publishing the information online showed the collaborative nature of UW- Madison's work. Moreover, Alcock's dedication to providing developing countries with essential and highly sought-after PPE demonstrates that women in the engineering field can combine their talent for systems and compassion for people to solve problems in a global crisis.

Annotated Bibliography:

Arthur, K. (2020, March 30). 'Badger Shield' approved to protect medical staff from COVID-19. https://www.channel3000.com/local-innovators-develop-badger-shield-to-fill-major-need/.
This news article reported that the Badger Shield, which was designed and manufactured by a team of engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was quickly approved by the UW-Madison hospital. This source not only informs that hospital officials approved of the design, but also states that global companies, such as Ford Motor Company, manufactured the face shield design.

COVID-19 Face Shield Manufacturer Follow-Up Form (Responses). (2020, March 23). https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14kkwrz8pHXTdkVQQHcWAQ4H0yFAKIGznzNr_RH0btOo/edit #gid=1221424084.
This document is a comprehensive list of all the facilities who have joined the Badger Shield collaboration as a manufacturer willing to assemble and distribute shields. This list showed how much the network of manufacturers grew between March 2020 and January 2021.

Open Source Face Shield V4. (2020). https://www.delve.com/assets/documents/Open-Source-Face- Shield-Drawing.pdf.
This document includes a detailed description about the materials needed to assemble a Badger Shield as well as instructions accompanied with pictures to show how to make it. The list of materials and instructions revealed that along with having the approval of hospitals, this shield is simple for other designers and manufacturers to replicate and use.

Shield-Net: Home. Shield-Net. (2020). https://shield-net.org/.
This is the online platform created to automatically create optimized matches between buyers and manufacturers. An interested buyer would start by filling out a form located on this website. This platform also includes some of the latest statistics regarding the Badger Shield’s success in widely distributing face shields.

Ziemer, T. (2020, April 27). Online platform helps healthcare facilities in need of face shields meet their match. College of Engineering - University of Wisconsin-Madison. https://www.engr.wisc.edu/news/online-platform-helps-healthcare-facilities-in-need-of-face-shields- meet-their-match/.
Ziemer describes the project that was created due to the rapidly incoming requests for the Badger Shield. It explains what the engineers did to accomplish the task and provided statistics. These statistics from March 2020 emphasizes how much the shield’s popularity and project’s network of manufacturers grew since then.

Ziemer, T. (2020, July 23). Grad student helping organize PPE production, COVID response in developing countries. College of Engineering - University of Wisconsin-Madison. https://www.engr.wisc.edu/news/grad-student-helping-organize-ppe-production-covid-response-in- developing-countries/.
Ziemer describes Alcock’s project, which had the task of distributing vital protective equipment to developing countries. This article provides details on what Alcock did on the project she led using her experience from the previous Badger Shield project.

Ziemer, T. (2020, August 28). In midst of PPE scramble, UW-Madison engineers collaborate with local companies to fill face shield shortage. College of Engineering - University of Wisconsin-Madison. http://www.engr.wisc.edu/news/in-midst-of-ppe-scramble-uw-madison-engineers-collaborate-with- local-companies-to-fill-face-shield-shortage/.
This article explains how the team of engineers of the original Badger Shield project expanded their goal to help supply PPE to facilities around the nation after accomplishing their initial task for the UW- Madison hospital. It not only details their actions, but also describes the additional tasks they faced as their project grew.