Mizzou Engineers, Physicians to Help Rural Missouri Plan Ahead for Pandemic: Geospatial Big Data is Key

Planning ahead for a pandemic—or any disaster situation—is costly and complex. Now, Mizzou researchers are hoping to take the guesswork out of it for Missouri’s smaller communities.

Genome Sequences Could Be Key to COVID-19

The secret to surviving COVID-19 could be locked in our DNA. Researchers are analyzing genome sequences to find clues about why some people are more susceptible to the virus. Right now, doing that work comes with a hefty price tag. But Praveen Rao is developing a way for more scientists to unlock that information for free.

Flu researcher brings team together to tackle COVID-19

Professor Henry Wan has studied flu viruses for years, and he can assure you, coronavirus is not the same. It’s trickier. Less predictable And for many, deadlier. But there are insights scientists can glean from decades of research around the transmission of the flu. That’s why a team of Mizzou researchers is turning its collective attention to COVID-19.

In the Fight to Contain COVID-19, MU Makes its Own Testing Swabs

The new 3D printers at the University of Missouri College of Engineering have been given colorful nicknames, ranging from the enticing PiquantPelican to the down-and-dirty FreshSlug. The nicknames are fitting, because the printers are cranking out a product that is highly coveted for an unpleasant task — coronavirus testing swabs.

CELDi Symposium Goes Virtual

As the University of Missouri campuses began preparations to move to remote teaching and telework in March due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Professor Jim Noble in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering (IMSE) was preparing for the Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution (CELDi) spring meeting and research symposium. Noble is the MU site director of CELDi, a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center.

Site Connects Users to Reliable Information About COVID-19

Looking for reliable information about COVID-19? Want to access articles quickly without having to sort through hundreds of journal articles? You’re in luck. Graduate students at Mizzou Engineering have developed a tool to help you sift through resources fast.

Local Makers Group Designs Proning Bed for COVID Patients

Health care workers know that turning ventilated patients onto their stomachs, a procedure known as proning, helps the patients by opening their lungs. As the COVID-19 outbreak began to spread in Missouri, MU Health Care officials reached out the Hacking COVID-19 Task Force to see if someone could design a device to facilitate the proning procedure.

MU Partners with Community to Produce Face Shields

The MU College of Engineering is working with the Columbia STEM Alliance, Columbia Public Schools, the Columbia Police Department, Boone County and the MU-COVID-19 Task Force to manufacture face shields for first responders and health care workers at no cost.

MU’s Hacking COVID-19 Task Force Creates Equipment to Protect Health Care Workers

Kevin Gillis heard stories about hospitals that were overwhelmed by the COVID-19 outbreak and unable to get enough equipment to protect their front-line health care workers. He wanted to do something to prevent that from happening in mid-Missouri. And as the interim chair of the University of Missouri’s Department of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering, he had a deep bench of innovative problem-solvers ready to help. The only question was how.

Feeling anxiety? Reverse-engineering the brain could help

The anxiety you may be feeling right now in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic stems back to our prehistoric need to survive. Biologists have explored this principle for decades. Those breathing techniques that your mobile app, HR office or best friend might be recommending? They can help—psychology studies have proven this. But what’s happening inside your brain during those deep breaths? That’s a problem for engineering.