Big Ideas for a Changing World

Big Ideas for a Changing World

By McMaster EngineeringScience
Download on the App Store

Big Ideas for a Changing World episodes

  • Making surfaces repellent to bacteria and viruses with Repel Wrap

    What if frequently touched surfaces like food packaging, door handles and bus railings could be coated with a plastic that repels bacteria and viruses?

    McMaster engineers Leyla Soleymani and Tohid Didar, the lead creators of a self-cleaning plastic wrap called Repel Wrap, are working towards making this technology widely available. After confirming its effectiveness against viruses similar in structure to COVID-19, the team of engineers and health scientists are now testing the surface with the COVID-19 virus.

    Guests:

    • Leyla Soleymani, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Miniaturized Biomedical Devices, Department of Engineering Physics
    • Tohid Didar, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and the McMaster School of Biomedical Engineering

      • Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @mcmastereng. Read more at eng.mcmaster.ca/news. 

      26 min
    • Creating an accurate COVID-19 antibody test, and 3D-printing cells for drug research

      Since March, a team of researchers have developed and advanced two novel technologies which have applications during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. They're aiming to make them widely available for research and community use soon.

      Guests: Ishwar Puri (Dean of Engineering, Professor of Mechanical Engineering) and Rakesh Sahu (Research Associate, Adjunct Assistant Professor in Materials Science and Engineering). 

      28 min
    • Innovating masks and protective gear for healthcare workers

      Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, engineers at McMaster joined forces with physicians upon realizing the urgent need for local solutions to personal protective equipment shortages. Just months later, McMaster University is now home to an established network of engineers, clinicians, local manufacturers and companies dedicated to advancing personal protective equipment products in Canada. How did this collaboration get off the ground, and what's next for advancing PPE in Hamilton and Canada?

      Guests: Ravi Selvaganapathy, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and McMaster School of Biomedical Engineering

      Dr. Alison Fox-Robichaud, Professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster and a critical care physician at HHS

      Host: John Preston, Associate Dean of Research and External Relations, Faculty of Engineering

      47 min
    • Rapid-detection kit for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies with Ishwar K. Puri and Rakesh Sahu

      As some workplaces begin to reopen in stages, there's a need for widely available and accurate ways to test for immunity to COVID-19. Ishwar K. Puri (Dean of Engineering) and Rakesh Sahu (Research Associate) are part of a larger, interdisciplinary team at McMaster working on a rapid-detection kit for the virus that causes COVID-19. They talk about the importance of collaboration across disciplines, how they're working towards eliminating false positive results, and what motivates them personally as researchers in engineering.

      21 min
    • Introducing Big Ideas for a Changing World, with host John Preston
      Welcome to Big Ideas for a Changing World, where we'll explore some of the innovative research taking place at McMaster Engineering to address pressing global issues. 
      The world is changing so fast and in so many ways. As we respond to the impact COVID-19 is having on our communities, there is an impetus for us to innovate at an unprecedented pace. We also need solutions that are creative and sustainable. In this context, sustainable means continued progress against the Global Grand challenges we were tackling pre-pandemic.
      In each episode, John Preston will be joined by research experts from the Faculty of Engineering and beyond, to talk about how we’re using our work today to improve the world of tomorrow. From testing improved protective masks for healthcare workers, to using machine learning and network science to model the safe re-opening of our communities, you’ll hear about it here on Big Ideas for a Changing World.
      2 min

    About Big Ideas for a Changing World

    From the publisher's feed

    Exploring innovative research in the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University, Canada’s most research-intensive university. With sustainability in mind, our researchers are helping to find solutions to the world's greatest challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.