How About Some Good News?

How About Some Good News?

With everything that’s been happening over the last few weeks, it’s important to find good news where you can. Whether it’s been the incredible response by our health care workers, the kindness of neighbors, or the generosity of those donating time and money to relief efforts, the human spirit is intact and running on all cylinders.

Ingenuity w/Code

So at Tynker, we decided to look for positive stories from the world of technology and share them with you, starting with 13-year-old Charles Randolph in Virginia, who’s using his parents’ 3D printer to make face masks: “You use a slicer which takes the product that you got off Thingiverse (a website that shares digital designs) and it turns it into code that the 3D printer can read.”

Charles said he got the idea to make masks at home after reading that people with pre-existing medical conditions, like his great-uncle, are most vulnerable to Covid-19. He can produce a mask for about a dollar each but isn’t looking to make any money from it. After giving a mask to his great-uncle, Charles wants to donate the rest of them to those in need. Thank you, Charles!

Cool meets Kind

In Texas, the Austin Independent School District is adjusting to kids learning from home like the rest of the country. But when they discovered that a disproportionate number of students in low-income communities were without access to WiFi, they found a unique yet practical way to deal with it.

“As we prepare for the possibility of extended school closures, we know that an Internet connection is a lifeline and a learning link for our students,” said Kevin Schwartz, the district’s chief technology officer.

So, with a generous grant from education technology provider Kajeet, Schwartz is engineering the deployment of 110 WiFi-equipped school buses to be parked in areas of need. For example, right in front of an apartment complex with a 300-foot signal range, powered from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the school week. It’s cool to be kind!

Teaming up!

Apple and Google are joining forces in the fight against Covid-19 by trying to develop an app that can identify how a pathogen jumps from person to person based on who they’ve been in contact with. Think of it as a coronavirus tracker designed to contain the spread.

In order to be effective though, this potential contact tracer requires not just advanced bluetooth technology but at least half, if not more, of America to download the new app to their phones. Together we can do it!

Did Someone Mention Turtles?

To our surprise, we also found that doing absolutely nothing has its benefits—for our planet! With people staying home, sea turtles from Florida to Thailand have free range on beaches just in time for nesting season, giving not just turtles but other marine life more time than they’ve had in years to replenish.

Top of the World

And in India, the lockdown has slowed the transportation industry to a halt, resulting in a major drop in air pollution. With the cleanest and clearest skies in decades, people in the north have been posting photos with views of Mount Everest and the rest of the Himalayan mountain range that they had never seen before. Amazing!