Here’s how Stanford students are tackling COVID-19

From helping develop medical equipment to creating art, Stanford students from across departments and academic disciplines are finding ways to support their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Alex Kekauoha

Stanford students are among the university affiliates who are helping to meet the challenges created by COVID-19.

In the weeks since the pandemic shut down the Stanford campus, students from across the university have stepped up to help address the virus and its ramifications, often in their home communities. From helping develop medical equipment for under-resourced hospitals to organizing donation drives, Stanford students are finding creative ways to give back during these unprecedented times.

Following is a sampling of their work.

Stanford students help connect farmers with food banks

Stanford sophomores James Kanoff and Stella Delp created the not-for-profit FarmLink to salvage surplus food from farmers and donate it to overwhelmed food banks.

Not yet able to treat patients, Stanford medical students help caregivers

Unable to meet with patients and prevented from taking part in most clinical rotations, students at the Stanford School of Medicine have found ways to support physicians and nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stanford students launch incubator to support projects fighting COVID-19

The COVID-19 Response Innovation Lab has convened hundreds of Stanford affiliates to form or volunteer on projects addressing the pandemic.

Stanford student helps design ventilator for COVID-19 patients in Peru

First-year student Marcelo Peña has teamed up with researchers in his home country of Peru to develop a unique and affordable ventilator for treating patients with COVID-19.

Stanford students map free meals for Bay Area schoolchildren

An interdisciplinary team of Stanford students created a virtual map showing where local schoolchildren can receive free meals during school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students help physicians with rapid-response COVID-19 answers

Stanford medical and physician assistant students – sidelined from clinical rotations during the pandemic – have created a website to help physicians receive answers to questions related to COVID-19.

Stanford golfer does her part to keep frontline workers healthy

Stanford golfer Mika Liu, ’21, is working with her family to provide reusable filtered cloth masks to medical and law enforcement personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stanford researchers help develop privacy-focused coronavirus alert app

Grad student Tina White is part of a team of researchers who built an app that alerts people to possible COVID-19 infections.

Stanford med students use artistic talents to combat COVID

As the pandemic spread around the world, Stanford medical student Ryan Brewster founded COVID Creatives, a group of artists and designers offering free infographics, posters and other materials to health care providers.

In service to others

Since their season was cut short due to COVID-19, sophomore Wiley Rogers and the Stanford sailing team have been busy supporting those in need.

Stanford medical students provide coronavirus answers to the homeless

Three Stanford medical students have teamed up with a local nonprofit to provide reassurance and reliable information about COVID-19 to the homeless community.

Stanford students help overwhelmed lab in Monterey County with COVID-19 testing

After learning that the county’s Public Health Lab was short-staffed and struggling to meet demand for testing, Stanford graduate student Paul Bump rallied his fellow researchers to volunteer their time.

Students launch food-science blog for sheltering in place

Engineering PhD student Rachel Huang is among the students in the Stanford Polymer Collective who created the food science blog The Big Nano. The blog features fun food science activities and experiments that readers can do at home while sheltering-in-place. Past blogs by Huang and fellow grad students Vivian Feig, Yuelang Chen, Chunzi Liu and Abby Grosskopf, have demonstrated how to make chocolates, boba and foamy coffee.

Students learn how to build COVID-19 mathematical projection models for policymakers

In a new course from the Stanford Health Policy program, students learn to build COVID-19 mathematical projection models for policymakers.