13-year-old creates handheld safety shield with 3D printer to keep others safe during pandemic

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – A South San Francisco teenager is using 3D printers to keep you safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

The 13-year-old has created a safety shield you can use to open doors and other items when you’re out and about to avoid direct contact.

Right now, his focus is to keep students and teachers safe when they return to the classroom.

“I was able to create this right here,” Mizan Rupan-Tompkins said. 

At 13-years-old, Mizan Rupan-Tompkins has made thousands of handheld safety shields and has delivered them across the globe hoping to keep people safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

“There’s many designs out there, but what I did was made a specific design better,” Mizan said. 

He’s calling it the “Safe Touch Pro” and it can be used to open doors, touch handles, and as you check out at stores.

He says it is germ resistant.

Since the shelter in place began, Mizan has been busy.

“This is one I built from scratch,” Mizan said. 

He has nine 3D printers, one he even made himself.

He says it takes less than 30 minutes to make one safe touch pro and he’s making dozens of them a day and while you can buy them on his website, his focus right now is donating them to schools so teachers and students can feel safe back in the classroom he has started a fundraiser called operation student shield.

“I feel like schools are very easy targets for COVID spikes and bathroom doors and public school doors are very common objects students will touch,” Mizan said. 

Mizan is homeschooled and able to focus on his studies as well as his invention from his house in South San Francisco, where he hopes to continue working hard to keep you safe.