The Next Pandemic

COVID-19 has galvanized tech communities. The tens of billions we're spending on vaccines, antivirals, tests, robots, and devices are transforming how we'll respond to future outbreaks of infectious disease.

• Here's How We Prepare for the Next Pandemic

  If we keep developing the tech that has been supercharged for COVID-19, it never has to be this bad again By Eliza Strickland and Glenn Zorpette

1. Grand Biomedical Challenges

• The Great Ventilator Rush

  Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, engineers launched extraordinary crash programs that produced scores of ventilator designs. What will happen to them now? By Mark Harris

• AI Vaccine Development Got Its First Big Tryout With COVID-19

  Finding the precious few molecules that could end a pandemic is a moon shot worthy of today's most cutting-edge AI By Emily Waltz

• Can AI and Automation Deliver a COVID-19 Antiviral While It Still Matters?

  Researchers are betting that new tools can cut drug discovery from 5 years to 6 months
  By Megan Scudellari

2. Testing, Tracing, and Modeling

• Researchers Are Getting Close to a Here-and-Now COVID-19 Test

  Fast, high-tech, use-anywhere diagnostic tests are key to battling pandemics By Wudan Yan and David Schneider

• Contact-Tracing Apps Struggle to Be Both Effective and Private

  Google, Apple, and governments are asking people to opt in to unproven technologies By Jeremy Hsu

• Why Modeling the Spread of COVID-19 Is So Damn Hard

  Too many of the models have led policymakers astray. Here's how tomorrow's models will get it right By Matthew Hutson

• How Control Theory Can Help Us Control COVID-19

  Using feedback, a standard tool in control engineering, we can manage our response to the pandemic for maximum survival while containing the damage to our economies By Greg Steward, Klaske van Heusden, and Guy A. Dumont

3. Tech Takes on COVID-19

• UV Light Might Keep the World Safe From the Coronavirus-and Whatever Comes Next

  If researchers can build better UV-C lights, they will be frontline weapons against the next pandemic
  By Mark Anderson

• Photo Essay: When Robots Became Essential Workers

  Autonomous machines proved their worth in hospitals, offices, and on city streets
  By Erico Guizzo and Randi Klett

• Powering Through the Pandemic

  Electric utilities reveal what worked and what didn't in COVID-19 responses By Neil Savage

From top: Photo: JPL-Caltech/NASA; illustration: StoryTK; photo: Honeywell Aerospace Visit the COVID-19 resources hub for a calendar of IEEE virtual events and access to free offerings. ");$( ".title-wrap" ).prepend( "Special Report: ");$('.slider-class').slick({ infinite: true, slidesToShow: 3, slidesToScroll: 1, dots: true, arrows:false, responsive:[ { breakpoint: 767, settings: { slidesToShow: 1, slidesToScroll: 1 } } ]});});