Here's what it takes to design a better Ebola suit: a roomful of university students and professors, piles of canvas and Tyvek cloth, sewing machines, glue guns ... and chocolate syrup.
f there's one thing college kids do best, it's thinking creatively. Often operating with limited resources and tight deadlines, they're used to coming up with ingenious solutions to life's everyday problems (usually on little sleep). So it's no surprise that experts are turning to students for help in battling one of this year's most pressing global health issues: the Ebola outbreak.
And now there's a Grand Challenge that aims to help medical workers fighting Ebola: Design an improved protective suit. Current models are suffocating and can heat up to well over 100 degrees inside. That means they can only be worn 30 to 40 minutes at a time in the tropical heat of West Africa.