Page 4 - ME Fall Newsetter 22

ME’s “Mask Nerd” Mission
Credit: Jenn Ackerman
Aaron Collins (BME ‘07, MSME ‘10) saw a problem and found a solution — like any good mechanical engineer is trained to do. Early in the pandemic, when N95 masks were hard to come by and the efficacy of more widely available masks was unknown, Collins put his mechanical engineering degrees and background
in aerosol science to good use by testing every mask he could get his hands on.
No one seemed to be testing masks and making the results available to a wide audience; Collins saw a knowledge gap and used his mechanical engineering experience to fill it. “Almost everyone goes into engineering to solve problems and help people,” said Collins. “This really embodied everything I loved about engineering.”
Collins set up a lab in his bathroom and began testing various masks to see what percent of aerosols they block. He recorded the tests and posted the videos on YouTube, thinking he’d attract a small number of viewers. Soon, hundreds of thousands had watched his videos. Before long, the Mask Nerd, as he was soon being called, appeared in national newspapers like The New York Times and on CNN.
And what, exactly, did he find? “High-filtration” masks like KF94s and KN95s block at least 94 percent of aerosols, while the 3M-made 9205+ blocks more than 99 percent. High-filtration masks also maintain their integrity over several months of use. Cloth masks and surgical masks, he found,
were leaky and only modestly effective.
Collins credits UMN ME with paving the way for his project, saying that faculty have “a positive impact far beyond what they know. That’s why we need universities. They’re powerful tools for good.”
ME in the
4 ME News Fall 2022
Credit: Jenn Ackerman