For 
Rackham 
student 

Stephanie 
Pistorius, 
living 

on-campus with her husband 

during the time of COVID-19 

has been full of uncertainty. 

She said she was not prepared 

for the impact on lab research, 

though she had been following 

the news in the weeks leading 

up 
to 
the 
University 
of 

Michigan’s announcement of 

the cancellation of in-person 

classes.

“(The announcement) felt 

focused 
on 
undergrads,” 

Pistorius said. 

However, with the pandemic 

spreading, she mentioned how 

not going into the lab for more 

than six weeks will derail her 

tentative graduation date.

“It’s something I’ve been 

thinking about a lot lately,” she 

said.

Pistorius works in a wet lab 

that runs experiments with 

cell lines and animals. The cell 

lines can be frozen and picked 

up once things go back to 

normal, but the animals have 

to be a certain age to conduct 

experiments 
and 
require 

her to go in periodically and 

take care of them. Once the 

University 
announced 
that 

only critical lab work would 

be permitted, Pistorius faced a 

dilemma.

“It was like a daily struggle 

of ‘Should I go in or should I 

not go in?’” Pistorius said. 

With the time she would 

usually be spending in the 

lab, Pistorius is catching up 

on 
data 
analysis, 
reading 

primary research papers and 

writing the introduction to her 

dissertation. 

“Hopefully this time I use 

to catch up (on material) will 

make me more efficient once 

I’m back in the lab,” Pistorius 

said.

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, April 9, 2020

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Graduate students struggle with confusion, 
uncertainty as virus outbreak stalls research 

PhD candidates face 
unclear future as labs 
respond to orders 
to ramp down work

DESIGN BY CAITLIN MARTENS

See RESEARCH, Page 3

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 102
©2020 The Michigan Daily

N E W S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O P I N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit
Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

TECHNOLOGY

Opening kare’s website, 

the 
tagline 
“because 

sometimes 
we 
don’t 
feel 

our best” appears on the 

homepage. 
According 
to 

Business 
junior 
Bennett 

Hilkert, 
chief 
executive 

officer and a co-founder of 

kare, this tagline outlines 

the purpose of the company: 

to help connect students via 

an anonymous peer-to-peer 

support network. 

Team behind kare looks 
to promote mental health 

App to offer 
support for 
‘U’ students

Residents use 3D printers to make masks

AAPS teachers, AADL staff pool resources to address shortage of medical equipment

Several Ann Arbor engineering 

teachers are aiding a campaign 

called 
Operation 
Face 
Shield 

Ann Arbor, using 3D printers to 

create face shields for medical 

professionals on the front lines 

during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Robert Cupit, a teacher at Ann 

Arbor Public Schools, said he came 

across 
a 
video 
announcement 

from fellow teacher Bill Van Loo 

explaining how AAPS engineering 

teachers were creating 3D-printed 

face shields to donate to medical 

professionals. He had access to a 3D 

printer through the school system 

and decided he wanted to help out. 

The time it takes to create a mask 

varies, but Cupit said his machine 

takes about two-and-a-half hours. 

In an email to The Daily, Cupit 

explained how the process works. 

“I personally have 8 spools of 

filament, which is the material the 

3D printers use to print,” Cupit 

wrote. “I can make approximately 

22 shields per spool so 176 shields 

total. We have approximately 9 

people working on the project with 

3 distribution hubs. Each person 

has about the same amount, if 

not more material than I do. We 

are going to print as many as we 

possibly can with the time we have. 

The issue with scaling up is that 

once we run out it is very difficult 

to get more filament with all of this 

going on.”

Cupit and other AAPS teachers 

are working to make any personal 

protective equipment that they feel 

will help the medical professionals 

fight off the coronavirus pandemic. 

The AAPS teachers are asking for 

support 
through 
a 
GoFundMe 

page. 

“We have a lot of masks to print 

and not a lot of time to make them,” 

Cupit wrote. “People needed them 

last week and we just can’t keep up 

with the demand. The advantages 

of 3D printing are definitely cost 

and usability. You don’t have to be 

an engineer to use this equipment.” 

See APP, Page 3

VARSHA VEDAPUDI 

Daily Staff Reporter

DESIGN BY CARA JHANG

See MASKS, Page 3

BRAYDEN HIRSCH

Daily Staff Reporter

IULIA DOBRIN
Daily Staff Reporter

