From Blue Bleach To Hazmat Hacks, Students Take On Ebola Challenges
- National Public Radio November 5th, 2014
- Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/11/05/361445017/from-blue-bleach-to-hazmat-hacks-students-take-on-ebola-challenges
If there's one thing college kids do best, it's thinking creatively. Often operating with limited resources and tight deadlines, they're used to coming up with ingenious solutions to life's everyday problems (usually on little sleep). So it's no surprise that experts are turning to students for help in battling one of this year's most pressing global health issues: the Ebola outbreak.
The U.S. Agency for International Development announced a $5 million Grand Challenge in October, signaling the urgency to develop better protective gear for health workers in West Africa. Recognizing that grads and undergrads are in the perfect position to come up with clever ideas, some of America's most prominent universities have organized their own design challenges and emergency hackathons to get students' brains churning.
