Public Health

nCoV map Mar1320

COVID-19

We developed and manage an interactive dashboard mapping the COVID-19 pandemic in real-time, and have conducted various modeling studies to aid public health policy makers in their decision making. This work is sponsored by NSF, NIH, NASA and JHU.

Family immunization concept. Flu vaccine for children.

Measles

Our work on measles focuses on the development of a risk assessment framework to forecast likely measles hotspots, by taking into account local vaccination rates, travel patterns, and real-time status of measles outbreaks around the world.

Planet earth made of glowing blue dots over black background. Australia is in focus. horizontal composition with copy space.

Inferring the risk factors that drive outbreak dynamics

We exploit available epidemiological data, travel data, land use patterns, climate data, sociodemographic data, and ecological models within statistical and optimization-based frameworks to infer the most significant risk factors that contribute to infectious disease dynamics.

Family immunization concept. Flu vaccine for children.

Optimizing Resource Allocation for Outbreak Control

We develop decision support frameworks, specifically models which can provide robust outbreak control policies, for designing appropriate and targeted control measures to mitigate the risk posed by infectious disease. The research requires solving a constrained resource allocation problem, while concurrently accounting for stochastic outbreak dynamics.

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Predicting the spread of infectious diseases

We utilize available epidemiological data, travel data, land use patterns, climate data, sociodemographic data, and ecological models within statistical and machine learning frameworks to predict infectious disease risk at various spatial and temporal scales. Applications include measles, Zika, dengue, MERS-CoV and influenza.

Planet earth made of glowing blue dots over black background. Australia is in focus. horizontal composition with copy space.

Spatial-temporal modelling of Avian Influenza

We have conducted various comparative analysis to elucidate the risk factors and spreading dynamics of avian influenza, including H7N9 and H5N1 in China, and various H5 subtypes in the U.S.  The resulting risk modelling frameworks reveal the  regions at highest risk of transmission, as well as the underlying environmental and human factors that contribute most substantially to the spreading risk.

Family immunization concept. Flu vaccine for children.

Public Health Policy

We synthesize our findings from various modelling studies on infectious disease risk, ranging from MERS-CoV to Zika to Measles, to aid public health policy makers in their decision making.

Family immunization concept. Flu vaccine for children.

Inferring Contagion Patterns in Networks

We infer the most likely transmission paths of infectious disease in social-contact networks, where a population of connected individuals is represented using nodes and links. The problem is formulated as a mathematical program, and solved using a novel heuristic method which seeks to find the set of maximum likelihood spanning trees.

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Modeling bio-security risk in public transit systems

We utilize network analysis tools to represent the interaction of individuals using a city’s public transit system to evaluate a range of infectious disease threats. The models arevused to identify critical and vulnerable components of the system (e.g., super spreading vehicle-trips), which can be prioritized for monitoring and control during an emerging outbreak.