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WCPO: UC students work on COVID-19 surveillance to prevent surge

Engineering students talk to WCPO about UC's partnership with the Ohio Department of Health

headshot of Michael Miller By Michael Miller 513-556-6757
2 minute read January 31, 2024

WCPO highlighted the University of Cincinnati's surveillance program for COVID-19 in partnership with the Ohio Department of Health.

UC College of Engineering and Applied Science Associate Professor David Wendell and his students have spent the past three years tracking infections among students living in UC’s dorms and taking steps to prevent a spike in cases across campus.

231121aCOVID042.CR2 UC engineering professor David Wendell and his students are conducting COVID surveillance through tests of wastewater. It's a tool that epidemiologists are using to monitor the spread of communicable disease.

UC Associate Professor David Wendell holds joint appointments in biomedical and environmental engineering. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand

Several times a week, students fan out across campus in latex gloves, clean room garb and eye protection to collect wastewater samples. Special pumps beneath manhole covers collect small samples of wastewater at regular intervals during the day to capture longitudinal data about the population on campus, particularly those living in the dorms.

“One of the biggest advantages of wastewater surveillance is to pick up the virus in the population before people are even symptomatic,” said Wendell, who holds a joint appointment in UC’s departments of biomedical engineering and chemical and environmental engineering.

“So you know they have COVID before they do,” he said.

WCPO spoke with UC graduate student Patrick Kurtz and undergraduate engineering students Miriam Knutson and Milo Shrive about the weekly sampling.

Kurtz said the incidence of COVID-19 in January testing has been low, but the surveillance will indicate any potential spikes in infections.

Sampling will continue at least through the spring semester.

Watch the WCPO report.

Featured image at top: UC College of Engineering and Applied Science students collect samples of wastewater to track COVID-19 on campus. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand

A reporter interviews two students on UC's Uptown campus.

WCPO's Krizia Williams talks to UC College of Engineering and Applied Science students Milo Shrive and Miriam Knutson. Photo/Michael Miller

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