Designing the Future

If there is one thing to be agreed upon, it is that the world will never be the same after the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020. History has shown that many great periods of innovation and change come as a result of significant, world-changing events that cause people to rethink some aspects of a world that was thought to be certain. Just as the tragic events of September 11, 2001 caused the United States to redesign travel and security, the pandemic has shown a need for rethinking the way the world attempts to prevent and respond to microbes and diseases. Pandemics throughout history have caused many problems, and our reactions have exposed many insufficiencies. However, when we look back at these problems through a set of technological lenses, they can help inform on what to engineer for a biologically healthy world. This book will review what people did in the past and will discuss what modern technologies can bring us in terms of solutions, mitigation means, and prevention tools to specific problems highlighted by major pandemics throughout history. While the biological scientists and engineers are working on vaccines and medicines to reshape the biological world, mechanical and materials engineers are redesigning and reshaping the physical one.