Back in April, in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, there was a national shortage of protective N95 masks. Ryan Githens and Joe Webster, both engineers for Oceaneering, an engineering and applied technologies company with offices in Hanover, used their design skills to create a workaround solution to keep first responders in their community safe — an adapter that allows firefighters to use their SCBA masks as an N95 filter, "protecting their respiratory system and face from potential exposure to the virus," Githens said. Githens, a senior electronic technician, is also volunteer firefighter with the Abingdon Fire Company. It's as a volunteer firefighter that Githens and his colleagues rely on Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus, or SCBA, masks while on duty. Githens' work brought a fix for the scarce N95 mask issue. An N95 is a respirator which helps with airborne particle filtration, and offers better protection than a surgical mask against COVID-19.