With lots of cool technology at its disposal, Ryerson University is looking to use some of it to help during the COVID-19 pandemic by creating face shields and masks for frontline healthcare workers.

The Creative Technology Lab at Ryerson's Faculty of Communication & Design has teamed up with Toronto General Hospital to design and prototype different types of face shields and masks for healthcare workers using equipment normally reserved for students.

The lab uses four laser cutters and 40 3D printers to make the prototypes and has the capacity to develop upwards of 75 3D printed headpieces, 350 casted headpieces and 425 laser cut plastic shields a day.

It's also looking at ways to increase the number of face shields that can be produced by casting urethane resins, creating the potential to fabricate one face shield every 15 minutes, instead of the typical 3-4 hours.

Ryerson is one of many institutions stepping up to help provide healthcare workers with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) they desperately need.

The face shields are currently in testing at Toronto General and the lab hopes to begin working with more hospitals.