--- title: How Sewer Robots Will Protect Public Health description: How sewer robots will head off a future outbreak, getting veterans working in tech and more. canonical: https://time.com/4351904/how-sewer-robots-will-protect-public-health/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-31T16:00:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:57.089Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Sewer Robots Will Protect Public Health og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4351904/how-sewer-robots-will-protect-public-health/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Sewer Robots Will Protect Public Health twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Sewer Robots Will Protect Public Health by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 31, 2016 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 31, 2016 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**To head off future viral outbreaks, scientists are sending robots into the sewers.**](http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/sewer-robots-disease-tracking-1.3601525) By David Common at the CBC **2\.** [**Here’s how one nonprofit is helping veterans get to work in tech.**](http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/30/vettechtrek-is-creating-an-e-learning-platform-to-help-veterans-build-careers-in-the-tech-industry/) By Fitz Tepper in TechCrunch **3\.** [**Test scores improve when we pay students to do better. But should we?**](http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/05/19/when-students-have-cash-rewards-for-tests-what-gets-left-out/) By Anya Kamanetz in KQED’s MindShift **4\.** [**Here’s why we’re better at making decisions for other people.**](http://www.fastcompany.com/3060173/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/why-we-are-better-at-making-decisions-for-other-people) By Stephanie Vozza in Fast Company **5\.** [**Food has taken over the internet.**](http://www.wired.com/2016/05/internet-reached-perfection-looks-like-vampire-taco/) By Julia Greenberg in Wired  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4351904/how-sewer-robots-will-protect-public-health/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4351904/how-sewer-robots-will-protect-public-health/"},"headline":"How Sewer Robots Will Protect Public Health","datePublished":"2016-05-31T16:00:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:57.089Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4351904/how-sewer-robots-will-protect-public-health/","keywords":["Innovation","Veterans","Food","Robot"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4351904/how-sewer-robots-will-protect-public-health/","name":"How Sewer Robots Will Protect Public Health"}}]}] ```