The masks now worn by millions worldwide have potentially life-saving benefits. However, they have drawbacks too — especially for those healthcare professionals who must wear them for hours on end. The elastic bands that secure masks chafe the ears after a while, leading to pain and even infections.
In a bid to help, students and professionals at Texas State’s Ingram Hall Makerspace (IHM) are using material that would otherwise go to waste, along with three-dimensional printers and ingenuity, to conceive, prototype, test and produce thousands of “ear savers.” Already, these pain-saving gizmos have been distributed to university police, student health center employees and others on the front lines — and the inventors want to give away even more.
The IHM is an 8,000-square-foot collaborative academic space for creating, learning, inventing and practicing the free exchange of…
