The numbers, labels and descriptions pertaining to medical patients and COVID-19 cases that are housed in electronic health records may seem to be nothing more than a track record — a jumble of information a physician updates, typing away as their patient sits down for a visit.

Laboratories and lab-based courses have gradually regained momentum, filling up University faculty’s schedules once again and prompting the redesign of their day-to-day operations and class syllabi.

Between monitoring the statewide and national numbers, securing adequate and timely testing and ensuring ample space for quarantining and isolating community members, the decision to reopen Brown’s campus to more students and return to in-person instruction amid a pandemic was multi-layered.

Although the University has decided to welcome more students back to College Hill and classrooms amid the coronavirus pandemic, it is continuing to monitor the situation and willing to make changes to its approach.

After most University labs slipped into a lull in March following the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, undergraduates are anxious to partake in hands-on research investigations once again. But with a pandemic still pushing onward, popping into a laboratory at one’s whim is no longer feasible.

With the assistance of the University’s COVID-19 Research Seed Fund, some research groups have focused their microscopes on the viral particles behind the infection, while others have built technology to approach the pandemic’s challenges from various angles.

Where students once climbed onto the roof for an evening of soccer under the stars, the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center has now become a primary gathering spot for the Brown community — in a very different way.

Instead of relying on only a physical barrier, what if scientists were to develop a substance capable of killing COVID-19’s viral particles when they come in contact with personal protective equipment?

The University released its guidelines Aug. 11 for the free COVID-19 testing that will be required of returning students and employees during the fall semester. The summer testing pilot program currently in place will transition to this academic-year testing initiative beginning the week of Aug. 24.

To assist in the battle against COVID-19, a number of University research projects in progress since early spring seek to develop new technology molded to the needs of medical personnel, COVID-19 patients and testing sites.