Published in the Independence Daily Reporter March 2020

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

It wasn’t long after the COVID-19 situation became serious, they started coming. Emails and tags in social media to colleague Tim Haynes and I about 3D printing being used to solve various related problems, from valves of some kind for ventilators to a substitute for N95 masks. I reviewed most with interest even though Fab Lab ICC, like the rest of the Independence Community College campus, is closed until May 15. Those kinds of Internet stories are kind of vague and you wonder “OK, so if I did want to print a solution, how would I go about figuring out who would use it?” Besides, would clinical people want to use a maker-space-made solution? So, I really didn’t give much thought to trying to print any of these solutions, especially given the Lab closure, but the emails and tags kept coming and they became more specific.

Possible Substitute for the N95 Mask

As I write this, one week ahead of publishing, the first prototype N95 substitute mask has come off one of the Lab’s 3D printers, retrieved from the Lab, and set up in Tim’s basement. A key email, and a seemingly unrelated zoom call to Iowa yesterday prompted us to take action without using the Lab and without violating current social distancing guidelines.

Prompting Us to Act

A key email that tipped our scale came from Senator Jerry Moran’s office asking us to consider getting involved and it even included 3D plans from another maker space for making substitute masks. Tim reviewed and wondered if the required N95 filter material would be readily available. No use printing mask frames if the filter material is not available.

Meanwhile During the Iowa Zoom Call

Meanwhile, I was reminded of a scheduled zoom call with a young guy in Iowa. Anthony Riesen had attended our Maker Space Boot Camp last September while working with our good friend at North Iowa Area Community College, Tim Putnam, to convert some of their existing technical training space into more of a community maker space. Tim Putman and Anthony had invited me to come to Iowa in April to share our experience at an event they were planning to try to inspire maker space startups in northern Iowa. This zoom call was to decide whether to hold the conference as planned albeit by zoom or to postpone. In the conversation with Anthony before others joined the call, he mentioned that his dad worked at a hospital and they were ready to 3D print a substitute N95 mask. He sent me a video by a doctor at the University of Connecticut, Harford, Christopher Wiles, a first-year resident passionate about 3D printing. His design uses furnace filter material.

Moving Forward

Now, there was no reason not to move forward. Not only did we have a solution developed by a doctor, but it used commonly available filter material. Tim Haynes retrieved the printers from the Lab, set them up in his basement, and went to work on the first prototypes. Once we get a few of them in use at our area institutions, we can take steps to print more. One good thing is that only the filter material would be replaced. The 3D printed plastic frames can be sanitized and reused. Even if truckloads of N95 masks are available, it’s nice to know this could be a locally produced alternative. We found out just today that the Coffeyville John Deere engineers are working on the same thing so we will be collaborating with them. Others likely will come forward too.

New Form of Disruption

We use N95 masks in the Lab when we’re sanding or otherwise creating sawdust. I used N95 masks in my 10 years of sharpening tools. (Breathing carbide grinding dust is a definite no-no.) There’s a lot of room for improvement in the design of the current mass-produced N95’s. They are difficult to make fit and seal properly. An improper seal greatly reduces effectiveness. We are already thinking about ways to make these 3D printed versions better than those currently on the market. For one thing, if the part that fits your face is shaved and sanitized, we’re only one step away from being able to measure someone’s face and 3D printing a perfectly fitting mask with disposable filters. When COVID-19 has run its course, look for new, better-fitting solutions for everyone that needs to filter the air they breathe.

 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks. Archive columns and podcast at jimcorrell.com.

 

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter March 2020

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

People who know me well know that I’m rarely at a loss for words. I always have something to say and would welcome any impromptu opportunity to speak of the work we do at Fab Lab ICC and the effects we’ve seen on people’s self-confidence after learning to do things they never thought possible. I can easily go 20 minutes without notes. Give me a means to show pictures and I am pressed to keep it to 45 minutes. Our current situation leaves me nearly at a loss for words. I started to re-run a column from 2017 about small business marketing but given what’s going on today, that just doesn’t make any sense.

This column is submitted one-week ahead of publishing, so this week, I’ve seen one of my restaurant friends go from business as usual on Monday to nearly nothing on Tuesday; yesterday. As I make a substantial part of my living helping entrepreneurs and small business owners start and grow businesses it really hurts to know what they are facing over the coming weeks. So much has happened in the last 72 hours, I can’t imagine what will have occurred by the time this comes out in print.

Most of us, by nature, are social creatures, and getting together in groups is an essential part of the human experience. Now, we’re being encouraged to do just the opposite, staying away from large groups and not touching each other. The businesses that will hurt the most are those whose business models require and even encourage people to gather in large groups. Restaurants, bars, breweries, and all manner of other businesses come to the top of mind.

Local, state, and federal governments will develop programs, hopefully quickly, that will help in these unprecedented times. Many of our small business friends and neighbors will already be in big trouble before that help arrives.

In the meantime, we can help immediately by buying gift cards from the restaurants and other businesses we frequented regularly and then use them up later when dining rooms stores reopen or use them starting now by taking advantage of the to-go and curb-pick-up services being offered by nearly all food and drink establishments.

We need to learn what we can from this adversity and try to use the lessons learned to be stronger in the future. In a recent column, I wrote about the entrepreneurial spirit of those who fought to make Kansas a free state back in the 1850s leading up to the Civil War. It sounds cliché but we need to call on that entrepreneurial spirit and make a decision that we will get through this.

 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks. Archive columns and podcast at jimcorrell.com.

 

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter March 2020

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

I first met Kansas Secretary of Commerce, David Toland, way back in 2010 when he and a woman named Amy Biel were making the rounds in Southeast Kansas launching a health initiative. We needed a health initiative and still do today. He had a lot to do with the initiation of Thrive Allen County until after the last gubernatorial election when he took his new position in the Governor Laura Kelley’s administration.

[Bold] Leadership Kansas Panel Discussion

In the last few years, I’ve had the privilege of being invited to be part of a panel discussion in Pittsburg before each year’s class of Leadership Kansas, community leaders from across the state. The purpose of the Pittsburg panel was to discuss the state of economy and health in southeast Kansas and what we were doing about it. The panel was usually David, speaking about Thrive Allen County, Heather Morgan speaking about Project 17 and me speaking about Fab Lab ICC. This year, organizers had to find a substitute for David as he was too busy in his new position.

I recently heard that David had said nice things about the Lab at an economic development meeting in Pittsburg I wasn’t able to attend. I sent him a note thanking him for the compliment, one thing led to another and I was able to set up a meeting in Topeka with him and lieutenant governor Lynn Rogers.

[Bold] Clarifying Maker Space Potential

Both were familiar with Fab Lab ICC and maker spaces in general, but I wanted to make sure they could see that a maker space can have a special role in rural-community economic development while also having a positive effect on the entire population and people from all walks of life. You can’t convey that without pictures, so I showed them the same pictures I used for the keynote at the Chase County Annual meeting in Cottonwood falls last January. Jenn Laird, from Cottonwood Falls, attended our Maker Space Boot Camp the prior September and caught fire to start a maker space in Chase County. Our pictures helped tell the Chamber crowd the story of what a maker space could mean for them.

Our images show how we got started with an entrepreneurial mindset. We show images of some of our equipment but more importantly, we show the kinds of people that use the Lab; entrepreneurs, small business owners, challenged youth, gifted youth, men, women, and children young and old. We show how we’re changing the mindset and learning models. We tell how we show kids in poverty that they can have a very different future than perhaps they’ve been led to believe.

As I spoke, I saw David write a note on his handout “start with the youth.” In the middle of the presentation, with the youth and project on the screen, he looked at me and said: “Wait, are you trying to change the culture?” I said, “Well, yes. That’s exactly what we’re trying to do.”

Restoring Original Kansas Mindset

As I left the Department of Commerce building it struck me that the pioneers who founded this state had a certain mindset. They had to in order to survive and make a living in a new territory called Kansas. They persevered and figured out not only how to survive but also to prosper. At a time when everyone thought Kansas would be a slave state, the citizens decided Kansas should be a free state. We became “bleeding Kansas” in the 1850s, fighting over the ideals of freedom, and had a lot to do with the precipitation of the Civil War. That was our culture; resilient, self-reliant, and free. In the last 150 years, we’ve lost a bit of that culture and it’s time to bring it back. My message to the Secretary of State and Lieutenant Governor? A maker space in every community in Kansas can go a long way in changing our culture and restoring that original mindset.

 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks. Archive columns and podcast at jimcorrell.com.

 

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter March 2020

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

It’s time to revisit the idea of the mandatory $15 minimum wage; actually, at least one of the recent presidential candidates was touting the idea of a mandatory $22 minimum wage. In the following article first published in 2017, I speak of robots doing simple, repetitive work. Now, just under three years later, robots and automation are becoming sophisticated far beyond the repetitive tasks they were doing only three years ago.

Mandatory $15 Minimum Wage and Unintended Consequences

Some states have already mandated it.  It sounds good, at first, but the mandatory $15 minimum wage may have some unintended consequences, many of them, well, not so good.

Automation and robotics are coming to the workplace and they are coming fast.  Entire warehouses are served by robotic carts retrieving merchandise to be sent to customers.  Fully ambulatory robots are programmed to do some of the mundane tasks on the assembly line; mundane tasks currently being performed by minimum wage earners.  The cost of such a robot is about $22,000 and it will last five to eight years.  That’s a bit more than the current minimum wage for one year but less than the $15.00 mandatory minimum wage.  A current commercial offers a franchise opportunity where the main feature is a robot that will serve your yogurt creation.  (This is a terrible business model.  In a year or two, robots will be serving all kinds of items in all kinds of restaurants.  Robots will become more common.)

In spite of what any politician says about “bringing jobs back to America”, the minimum wage jobs will not be coming back.  There are too many people in the world willing to work for much less money than the current minimum wage, let alone a new $15 minimum wage.

All this does not bode well for those earning the minimum wage at current levels.  States raising the bar to $15 incents businesses in those states to do more automation and offshoring of low-level jobs, thus reducing their employment levels.

We can expect higher unemployment among those in the minimum wage sector; especially youth in the urban areas that need “starter” jobs to learn and enhance skills.  Is that really what we hope to achieve with this clamoring to a higher minimum wage?

Minimum Wage Jobs Are Starter Jobs

Minimum wage jobs are supposed to be “starter” jobs.  People take them to get “started” and then aspire to excel in the way they do those jobs so they can begin to move up the ladder into higher-paying positions.  The minimum wage was never supposed to be a fully “living” wage.

Somehow, in our society, we’ve raised a generation or two of people that have the idea they should be able to take a “starter” job and have a comfortable life without aspiring to grow and improve their skills and wage level in the workplace.

Our schools and training programs can help by not only providing technical knowledge and skills, but also providing the aspiration for life-long learning and self-improvement so our citizens won’t expect a minimum wage job, no matter what the hourly rate, to give them a comfortable life.

 

Jim Correll can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of Fab Lab ICC or Independence Community College. Archive columns and podcasts at jimcorrell.com.