Rising To The Challenge

Episode 4: Tech it or Leave It

By Gwen Macsai and Libby Foster
 
Rising to the Challenge: A podcast by the University of Illinois System
Listen (Duration: 38:37)
Download

Host Gwen Macsai talks tech (even though she was a liberal arts major!) and breaks down some of the key elements of the scientific wizardry that made the University of Illinois System able to implement its COVID-19 mitigation plan so well. First up, she takes a tour of the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab to see what happens to the saliva samples once they leave the testing tents, then she talks with Nigel Goldenfeld about the computer modeling the school—and the state—depended on to develop its testing protocols. Rashid Bashir, Dean of the Grainger College of Engineering, talks about a test that can detect COVID-19 with your cell phone, and Gwen gets in the car with Bryan Rives, Director of the UIS Sangamon Performing Art Center on his 26th trip driving saliva samples from UIS to UIUC. Spoiler alert: Think Groundhog Day, but with test tubes.

Rising to the Challenge is produced by the University of Illinois System with production support from Illinois Public Media. (The Illinois Public Media newsroom was not involved with this podcast.)