SGER: DIMACS Exploratory Postdoctoral Program in Computational Epidemiology

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Mathematical methods have become important tools in analyzing the spread and control of infectious diseases and in the analysis of alternative interventions in the case of newly emerging diseases, naturally occurring epidemics of traditional diseases, and deliberate attacks using biological weapons. Much is to be gained by extending the mathematical tradition by making use of the powerful tools of modern computer science. This project is based on the belief that partnerships among computer scientists, mathematical scientists, biologists, and epidemiologists can lead to important new contributions to the usefulness of such methods, and in particular on the belief that opening lines of communication between computer scientists and mathematicians interested in problems of epidemiology but coming at them from completely different perspectives can stimulate important new developments. The project will support the work of postdoctoral fellows at DIMACS, the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science. The students have mathematical and computer science backgrounds, and are interested in epidemiological applications. The effort will focus on control theory models of virus dynamics, chemostat models describing the competition of several organisms for a single nutrient, and on influenza modeling. Additionally, they will work on applying powerful methods of modern data mining to the developing DIMACS efforts in data cleaning of public health data, biosurveillance, and bioterrorism sensor location. In the most exploratory part of the project, the students will participate in work related to other's special interests, with the mathematicians working on ways to use control theory in biosurveillance and the computer scientists working on ways to use methods of data mining in flu modeling.