URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Fall_2020_Melissa-McCarthy

“We had the tools and the skills to contribute to this effort.” - Brennan Phillips

Brennan Phillips Assistant Professor Ocean Engineering

With in-person classes turned remote and students sent home, URI Assistant Professor of Ocean Engineering Brennan Phillips began to explore how his underwater robotics labs could use the 3D printing techniques to engineer solutions to the anticipated ventilator shortage. “We hack stuff,” the two-time URI alum said. “We’ll get something like a camera, rip it apart, and figure out how to make it work underwater. We had the tools and the skills to contribute to this effort.” Phillips’ lab specializes in using 3D printing to create equipment alternatives that enable “deep sea work without all the overhead.” While a traditional deep-sea research mission requires shipping containers full of tens of thousands of dollars of equipment, like high-definition cameras, ROVs, and submarines, his lab seeks to figure out low-cost alternatives to exploring the ocean. For example, Phillips’ team prints a custom waterproof case for a tiny camera that can be thrown off the edge of a boat and pulled back with a fishing reel.

3D-printed ‘exhalation ports’ used in the patient circuit of a ventilator system.

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