The Rising To The Challenge Podcast

Episode 6: Goodbye 2020!

Host Gwen Macsai visits with a professor spicing up Zoom classes with impersonations, two students using 3D printing to help the community, checks on the state of Illinois finances and gets a sound check with the director of the Marching Illini.

Episode 5: COVID Trickle-Down Effects: The Good, The Bad, And The Ponies

Host Gwen Macsai visits with a family doctor who started a food pantry at the University of Illinois Chicago. Talks with an Engineering Professor about the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign’s development of the RapidVent and its potential. She then heads to the University of Illinois Springfield to get the impact of COVID waste on the environment and finally checks in at the UIUC horse farm to see how they dealt with 24 new horse births in the middle of a pandemic.

Episode 4: Tech it or Leave It

Host Gwen Macsai breaks down some of the technology that the University of Illinois System is using to implement its COVID-19 mitigation plan. She takes a tour of the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab to follow saliva samples through the full process, then talks with Nigel Goldenfeld about the computer modeling the school and state are using to develop its testing protocols. She also talks with Rashid Bashir, the Dean of the Grainger College of Engineering about a test that can detect COVID-19 with your cell phone, then takes a ride with the Bryan Rives, Director of the University of Illinois Springfield Sangemon Performing Arts Center on his 26th trip driving samples from UIS to UIUC.

Episode 3: Stressed to the Nines

Host Gwen Macsai visits an Emergency Room at the University of Illinois Chicago and talks with Dr. Janet Lin. Talks with Tara Powell, Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign School of Social Work. And speaks with Mark Wolters, a teaching professor at the Gies College of Business at UIUC. Lastly, she talks to Mariana Delgado a senior at UIC about how she is helping people in the pandemic.

Episode 2: Testing, Testing 1, 2, 3 Testing

Host Gwen Macsai talks with Dr. Martin Burke from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign about developing the rapid saliva test, gets a look at the SHIELD Illinois Program with Ron Watkins from UIUC and learns how the University of Illinois Chicago is getting tests to the homeless with Dr. Stockton Mayer and Rebecca Singer. Then talks to Anant Naik about the children's book he wrote about COVID. It's called Heroes of the Pandemic: Those Who Stood up Against COVID-19.