The $1 billion proposal includes technical guidance and money to aid a scattershot school response to COVID-19.

SmithGroup led the teams through an immersive — and rapid — design-thinking workshop, where each team developed an actionable prototype to bring back to their institutions.

Under the direction of Shane Rogers, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, the university is conducting cutting-edge, wastewater-based epidemiology — in other words, analyzing sewage samples for trace amounts of the coronavirus.

When Iowa State University was given the go-ahead to open up for fall classes, faculty, staff and student technicians in the mechanical engineering department quickly made every effort to prepare lesson plans, classrooms, labs and other spaces to be as safe as possible so students can get the hands-on engineering education Iowa State is known for while also taking the necessary steps to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The technology relies on a chemical reaction: The membrane is a polymer matrix with a chemical quality that can react to, capture, and release CO2.

As scientists continue to study ways the coronavirus can be spread, one question involves aerosol droplets that people exhale while breathing. Can those droplets circulate in the air long enough to be picked up by a ventilation system and recirculated through building ducts? There has not been a clear answer.