Further exploring the role of engineering technology in responding to the global pandemic, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the US National Academy of Engineering and the UK Royal Academy of Engineering jointly hosted the webinar series Engineering’s Role in Catalyzing COVID-19 Response, Recovery, and Resilience.

The first webinar entitled “Engineering Innovation Responding to the Challenge of the Epidemic” was held online and livestreamed on April 19, 2021. It focused on experiences in the engineering community using existing resources to quickly and effectively solve supply chain problems in the early stage of the pandemic amid widespread shortages. The three speakers emphatically outlined the emergency response work done by the engineering communities in the three countries.

Recommended by CAE Members, Cheng Weishu, the manager of Sinopec Yanshan Petrochemical Synthetic Resin Plant, a national COVID-19 fight role model, described how Sinopec quickly expanded production capacity for meltblown materials and raced against time to build a production line within 12 days amid an extreme shortage of raw materials for medical masks in the early stage of the fight. An executive of 3M and a researcher from University College London also outlined their experiences in the development and production of personal protective equipment and respiratory aid devices.

Professor Wang Dan from a team led by CAE Member Chen Jianfeng then joined a roundtable discussion with young engineering scientists from the United States and Britain, and shared research results on the reuse of masks.

A follow-up webinar will discuss how engineering helps restore normal production and life and improvs the ability to respond to future crises by learning from the practices in this pandemic.

(Ren Hongtao)