Field Ready: The Startup Using 3D Printing For Disaster Relief
From 2008 to 2013, how many people were displaced on average yearly due to natural disasters?
Try 27 million people.
Today, natural disasters, war, and country-level crises displace hundreds of millions of individuals yearly.
Though there are many disaster relief agencies dedicated to serving these at-risk populations, humanitarian aid supply chains are slow and cumbersome.
What this means is that the people most in need of immediate aid often can’t get the resources they need. Even when response is timely, field response teams can’t always accurately predict the supplies they’ll need.
“Our goal has always been to transform the way aid agencies work.”
— Laura James, Co-Founder of Field Ready
Field Ready, a non-profit organization that’s fresh out of the SU Labs Startup Accelerator, is using 3D printing and digital manufacturing to overcome logistical challenges and improve disaster relief aid.
Why 3D printing? The agile nature of the technology allows teams to make customized response solutions; 3D printed water filters, oxygen splinters, prosthetic limbs, and more, based on the current needs of the individuals on the ground.
These tools not only make it easier for doctors and nurses to provide care, but make treatment more effective, too.
For the Field Ready team, their focus is not only on recovering communities, but on creating solutions that will empower these communities to rebuild and prosper after the disaster.
Co-Founder Laura James says Field Ready will be deploying relief workers equipped with manufacturing skills and equipment ready in the region.
The organization is currently working in Haiti, Nepal, and the US, and is now preparing to scale their efforts.
Are you applying breakthrough technologies in space exploration, CleanTech, nanotech, environmental tech, or hard sciences to help improve millions of lives? The SU Labs Startup Accelerator might be right for you! Our third cohort starts in February 2017, and we’re accepting applications for Space, Energy & Hard Sciences startups now.
