“We're Used to Leaving Everything on the Field When We Approach Projects, and This Has Been at a Level that I've Never, Never Seen Before”

Silo Busting 2: A Conversation about the GENTL Mask with Jit Agarwal, Rich Ciccarelli, and Duncan Freake

The three most important letters in the alphabet right now are PPE. The personal protective equipment shortage is a major problem. The tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic will be multiplied, exponentially, if doctors and nurses can’t get the necessary masks, gloves, and gowns to shield themselves as they treat patients.

What’s needed is a fast and effective response—and this requires both innovation and cooperation. These elements can be found in the GENTL Mask project, EPAM Continuum’s open source PPE effort.

In this episode of Silo Busting, we tell the story of the GENTL Mask. Jit Agarwal, VP of Enterprise Products for EPAM, speaks with Rich Ciccarelli, Senior Director of our Made Real Lab™, and Duncan Freake, Senior Mechanical Engineer, two leaders of the GENTL Mask initiative. It’s a tale of speed, skill, and scale. “Good Enough, Not Too Late [GENTL] has been the guiding principle of a lot of our decisions here,” says Freake, explaining both the project’s ethos and name. “We set out to design something that would really provide meaningful protection and not take months to develop or be based on equipment that would not be set up until June.” Listen and learn how the GENTL Mask was briskly prototyped in our Made Real Lab, the role partnerships play here, and the open source nature of the initiative. We hope it will inform and inspire you.

Host: Macy Donaway
Editor: Kip Pilalas
Producer: Ken Gordon