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7 - Campus Hard or Feature News:

 

University of Florida COVID News:

For my campus hard or feature news I decided to look at the University of Florida. They have a whole website dedicated to their campus news and things happening around the University. Has been operating in Gainesville, Florida since 1906. With a 39% acceptance rate with a 87% graduation rate averaging a cost rate at $8,057 after financial aid. Unfortunately we are still in the middle of a pandemic. This means scientists and people around the world are looking for solutions. COVID-19 does not seem like it is going anywhere soon. So this means news sources even University News will continue to cover the changes happening around the world. 

The University of Florida has a group of students and professors that belong to the Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World. They decided to turn their focus towards technology to aid with Coronavirus. The group has created ideas with innovations for the pandemic including a wristband that tells kids when they are too close to each other, a mask that can clean the air around you, and a wearable that detects possible COVID infection. The wearable is still in a prototype phase and they plan to make the design more compact. The ADAPT Smart Mask has sensors that can detect droplets the size of COVID and then will release a mist that blows droplets away that can take other particles out of the air."How it could help: Protecting health-care workers and people who need to be in crowded indoor settings; even non COVID uses such as areas with severe air pollution." TRIDENT Smart Band was created as fever can be an early indicator of infection. This wearable band would constantly monitor temperatures of the user instead of relying on sporadic temperature checks. Scientist believe this could be an extremely useful tool in workplaces to avoid inaccurate screening. Finally, the RiskBand is something they are working towards for small children who struggle with the idea of social distancing. The device is small and functions with bluetooth making no annoying wires needed. It would alert students if they were too close using light and vibration. They are also hoping this could be used to see which children are in close contact with one student who may have become ill. A short video was created to show off their newest prototypes and ideas. 


Keeping up with their trend of COVID related news they University announced that along with normal testing they would be testing through wastewater. This led them to creating the GatorWATCH that monitors wastewater from 28 different residence halls, apartments, sorority halls, etc.. They have had multiple occurrences where the wastewater was showing signs of infection but these cases were already detected by normal nasal swabbing tests. However, they are hoping they can use their wastewater program to detect where the virus may still be lingering even after cases are decreasing. Below is a image of one of the wastewater testing mechanisms. The University of Florida's main campus news revolves around innovations in COVID and health of their students all together. 




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