Viral Infrastructures Capstone
How did the COVID-19 pandemic influence the culture of innovation, and in turn, how did different institutional cultures (entrepreneurial and academic) influence approaches to innovating?
In March 2020, a tweet from Dutch scientists (opens in new tab) shared that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could be detected in sewage. Wastewater surveillance (opens in new tab) could give public health professionals a fuller picture of infection levels within a community, even accounting for people who didn’t know they were infected or hadn’t been tested. Though this was not a new technology, the pandemic made it necessary to adapt and expand its use.
While there were many efforts to develop COVID wastewater monitoring capabilities, the two I focused on in this study were among the most successful: the New York State Wastewater Surveillance Network (NYSWSN) (opens in new tab), a partnership between university researchers and state health agencies, and Biobot Analytics (opens in new tab), a startup bringing wastewater monitoring to market.
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The comparison of the NYSWSN and Biobot Analytics revealed that there is no single answer to how disruptive tech (like wastewater surveillance) should be organized, funded, and governed. However, these choices do have their share of strengths and limitations.
- The NYSWSN’s academic culture encourages open sharing of research methods, while public funding helps it reach communities regardless of their ability to pay. But its reliance on government funding leaves it vulnerable to shifting political priorities.
- Biobot’s commercial model attracts investment and helped it expand quickly. However, access to data depends on paid services, while proprietary methods limit what others can learn from and build on.
My hope for this research is to meaningfully contribute to conversations around the culture of innovation. In a now post-COVID world, the rapid adoption of AI and other emerging technologies requires us to be discerning about what we accept out of convenience and what we’re willing to carry with us into the future.
This research was conducted in collaboration with and under the guidance and oversight of Dr. Lee W. McKnight (Ph.D. in Political Science, MIT), Associate Professor of Information Studies at Syracuse University, and Dr. Patrick Williams (Ph.D. in Information Studies, UT Austin), Humanities Librarian and Digital and Open Scholarship Lead at Syracuse University Libraries.