Building Low-Cost At-Home Disease Detection Tools: Inside Southwestern University’s Student Research Program

Few developments in modern medicine have changed everyday life as quickly as at-home testing. In just a few years, millions of Americans grew accustomed to swabbing their own noses, waiting fifteen minutes for a result, and making health decisions based on what appeared on a small plastic cassette. That shift exposed both a major opportunity and a persistent problem: at-home disease detection works, but the tools available today remain limited in scope, inconsistent in quality, and often too expensive for routine use.

At Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, a team of undergraduate researchers and their faculty mentor are taking on that problem directly. Led by Assistant Professor of Physics August Kohls, a group of students is designing and constructing a low-cost device intended to deliver quick, reliable disease detection from the comfort of home. The project, carried out through Southwestern’s summer research fellowship (SURF) program, offers a close look at how a small liberal arts university in the USA is contributing to one of the most important conversations in public health today.

Why At-Home Disease Detection Matters for Public Health

For most of modern history, diagnosing an infectious disease required a trip to a clinic, a laboratory order, and days of waiting. That system produces accurate results, but it also creates barriers that fall hardest on the people who can least afford them: hourly workers who cannot take time off, families without nearby facilities, rural communities hours from the nearest hospital, and uninsured patients facing steep out-of-pocket costs.

The consequences of those barriers are measurable. Conditions go undiagnosed until they advance. Outbreaks spread silently before public health officials can respond. And the healthcare system absorbs avoidable costs when late-stage illnesses require more intensive treatment. Accessible at-home testing addresses each of these failures in a direct way:

• Earlier intervention. When testing is convenient and affordable, people test sooner, begin treatment earlier, and isolate before infecting others.
• Expanded access. A device that works on a kitchen counter serves communities that clinics and laboratories have historically underserved.
• Lower systemic costs. Routine screening outside clinical settings reduces the burden on hospitals and frees resources for patients who truly need in-person care.
• Stronger surveillance. Widespread testing generates faster, more complete data for epidemiologists tracking disease across the USA.

These advantages explain why at-home testing grew from a niche product category into a cornerstone of national health strategy, and why researchers continue to look for ways to make home diagnostics cheaper, faster, and more versatile.

Inside the Southwestern University Disease Detection Project

The research effort at Southwestern University begins with a clear design goal: build a device that anyone can use at home, that returns results quickly, and that costs little enough to manufacture for widespread distribution. Meeting all three requirements at once is the central challenge of the field. Devices that are accurate tend to be expensive; devices that are cheap tend to sacrifice reliability. Closing that gap is precisely what the Southwestern team, under Assistant Professor August Kohls, has set out to do.

A Physics-Based Approach to Diagnostics

The project’s home in Southwestern’s Department of Physics is not accidental. Many of the most promising advances in low-cost diagnostics rely on physics: optical sensors that detect changes in light as they interact with biological samples, electrical measurements that flag the presence of pathogens, and miniaturized instrumentation that shrinks laboratory-grade equipment down to a portable scale. A physicist’s training in optics, electronics, and quantitative measurement translates naturally to this kind of instrument design.

For the students involved, that means the project is not a simulation or a classroom exercise. It is genuine engineering work: specifying components, assembling prototypes, running tests, analyzing data, and iterating on designs that do not perform as expected. Few undergraduate experiences teach the realities of scientific development so directly.

Students as Primary Researchers

One distinguishing feature of research at Southwestern University is that undergraduates do substantive work, not peripheral tasks. The disease detection project exemplifies that model. Students design and construct the device themselves, guided by faculty mentorship rather than standing on the sidelines. That hands-on responsibility builds technical competence and, just as importantly, the judgment and persistence that real research demands.

This model extends across disciplines at the university. Recent SURF cohorts have included psychology majors validating a new parental investment scale developed by Professor Carin Perilloux, and kinesiology students conducting load carriage studies to help first responders carry equipment more safely under Professor Ed Merritt. In each case, undergraduates own meaningful portions of the research process. Prospective students who want that kind of experience should look closely at how a university structures its research programs before they apply. Explore Southwestern University’s summer research fellowship program and other undergraduate research opportunities to see whether this hands-on approach fits your goals.

The Engineering Challenges of Affordable At-Home Testing

Building a reliable disease detection device for home use requires solving several problems simultaneously, and each one shapes the Southwestern team’s work:

• Sensitivity and specificity. A home test must correctly identify people who have a condition and correctly clear people who do not. False negatives give users dangerous reassurance; false positives trigger unnecessary anxiety and medical visits.
• Simplicity of use. Clinic tests are administered by trained professionals. A home device must produce dependable results in the hands of someone with no training, under unpredictable conditions.
• Cost of materials. Every component, from sensors to casings to reagents, affects the final price. Achieving clinical-grade performance with inexpensive parts is the defining constraint of the project.
• Speed. One of the core promises of at-home testing is a fast answer. Design choices must preserve quick turnaround without degrading accuracy.

Progress on any one of these fronts matters. Progress on all of them together would represent a genuine advance in how disease detection is delivered across the USA.

What This Research Means for the Future of Public Health

Affordable at-home diagnostics carry implications well beyond individual convenience. Consider a scenario in which a reliable, low-cost device becomes widely available. Families could screen for illnesses at the first sign of symptoms, reducing the delays that currently allow infections to spread. Employers and schools could make faster, better-informed decisions about absences. Public health agencies would gain access to richer, timelier data about where diseases are active, improving the speed and targeting of their responses.

For rural America especially, the stakes are significant. Communities distant from medical facilities often experience worse health outcomes, partly because diagnosis comes late. A dependable home testing option narrows that gap without requiring new clinics, new laboratories, or new infrastructure, only a device that ships to a doorstep and works in a kitchen.

Research like the project underway at Southwestern University also strengthens the pipeline of talent working on these problems. Every student who learns instrument design, experimental method, and data analysis through this project becomes part of the next generation of scientists, engineers, and health professionals equipped to keep improving diagnostic care. If a career at the intersection of physics, engineering, and public health interests you, review the physics and related science programs at Southwestern University to see how undergraduate research fits into the curriculum.

How Students Can Prepare for Research in Disease Detection

Students drawn to this field do not need to wait until graduate school to contribute. Undergraduate preparation matters, and the path is more accessible than many high school students realize:

• Build quantitative foundations. Physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics courses teach the analytical skills that diagnostic research depends on.
• Seek hands-on experience early. Science fairs, maker projects, robotics teams, and laboratory internships all develop the practical instincts that instrument design requires.
• Choose a university that puts undergraduates in the laboratory. At large research institutions, undergraduates sometimes spend years before touching real research equipment. At Southwestern University, students join faculty-led projects, like the at-home disease detection effort, during their undergraduate years.
• Think across disciplines. Modern diagnostics live at the intersection of physics, biology, engineering, and public health. Students who communicate across those fields are especially valuable to research teams.

Admission to a university with strong undergraduate research is the practical first step. Schedule a campus visit or contact the Southwestern University admission office to learn how incoming students can join research programs from their first years on campus.

The Road Ahead for At-Home Disease Detection

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that at-home testing can operate at massive scale. The work now underway at Southwestern University points toward what comes next: devices that are cheaper, more versatile, and reliable enough to serve as routine tools rather than emergency measures. Progress will come incrementally, through exactly the kind of patient, iterative laboratory work that Professor August Kohls and his student researchers are conducting.

For the students involved, the project delivers something equally valuable: the experience of building something real against a genuinely hard problem. Whether they go on to graduate study, medical school, industry research, or public health careers, they will carry the habits of mind that hands-on research develops, including rigor, creativity, and the persistence to keep refining a design until it works.

At-home disease detection is moving from a stopgap measure to a permanent pillar of American healthcare, and universities across the USA are where that transition is being engineered. Southwestern University’s contribution shows that you do not need a massive research enterprise to move the field forward. You need a clear problem, a capable mentor, and students willing to build.

Have questions about studying physics or joining a research program like this one? Write to us and share what you want to learn. If you have experience with at-home testing or undergraduate research, share your perspective in the comments below, as your insight may help another reader decide on their next step.