Careers News

Collaborating with Communities to Create PPE

Supporting university initiatives to develop innovative solutions for local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Schlumberger university relations program helps to develop leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and to foster collaboration and innovation across academic communities worldwide.

To address some of the challenges in response to COVID-19, Schlumberger has collaborated with the Entrepreneurship Institute at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, and with startups to develop innovative personal protective equipment (PPE) and technological innovations to support local communities.

The pioneering initiatives by the entrepreneurs at the institute include:

• Testing and assembling open source ventilators;
• Producing face shields using locally sourced manufactured material and 3D printed components for donation to frontline responders;
• Developing a data driven crowd management and social distancing app—rolled out in a local supermarket chain, the app calculates how many people are located in the building and produces a maximum capacity congestion report;
• Designing a wearable device to promote social distancing awareness through vibration for use in densely populated locations such as schools or businesses with the capability to be further used for contact tracing and adherence to social distancing regulations.

A steering committee comprised of university faculty members and Schlumberger subject matter experts supervised the projects. Committee member Meshary Al-Ayed, Operations Systems Manager at Schlumberger who also serves as the company’s university ambassador, notes that “We have a long-standing commitment to support STEM innovation with academic partners. These innovations developed by the students at the Entrepreneurship Institute are an important contribution to help local communities minimize the impact of COVID-19.”

Engineers at Schlumberger also shared their knowledge and expertise with the students, for example, by supporting the coding process of the front-end application of the crowd management app, contributing in the assembly of the face shields, and developing the protype social distancing devices.

In addition, employee volunteers collaborated with the entrepreneurs on the supply chain for the procurement of materials, volunteered to assemble face shields, and provided overall new product development guidance as this is a cornerstone of Schlumberger expertise.

Learn more about this initiative here and how our locations worldwide are supporting their communities in response to COVID-19 here.