- EpiC: A Computational Infrastructure for Epidemics Research
Epidemic and diffusion processes are of great importance in the modeling, forecast, and analysis of a wide range of problems relevant to public health. The spread of infectious diseases remains a serious medical burden around the world and causes an estimated 15 million deaths each year. The epidemic paradigm can also be fruitfully applied to a wide range of “social contagion processes” where the acquisition or increase of a behavior or cultural habit is related to social contacts between the “uninfected population” and the “infected population”. The epidemic approach has already proven useful in understanding social behaviors such as tobacco, alcohol, and heroin use. The study of epidemic processes is a particularly challenging undertaking, because it requires a truly interdisciplinary effort that combines and integrates knowledge, datasets, and techniques developed in epidemiology, medicine, physics, computer science, and social and behavioral sciences, among others.
This project will the design, implementation, deployment, and maintenance of a computational infrastructure for epidemics research, called the Epidemics Cyberinfrastructure (EpiC). EpiC will support the integration of large numbers of complex datasets at a variety of levels, e.g., population density, patient records, and social behavior, as well as state of the art analysis, modeling, and visualization tools capable of dealing with non-linear and complex phenomena emerging in large populations. Unlike other cyberinfrastructure (CI) efforts, EpiC proposes the design, implementation, validation, and community support of a “bazaar” – like infrastructure that will be a marketplace for epidemics resources. EpiC will provide members of the scientific research community at large with the means to carry out data analysis, modeling, and visualization at multiple levels of analysis of social contagion and epidemic processes.
This project will the design, implementation, deployment, and maintenance of a computational infrastructure for epidemics research, called the Epidemics Cyberinfrastructure (EpiC). EpiC will support the integration of large numbers of complex datasets at a variety of levels, e.g., population density, patient records, and social behavior, as well as state of the art analysis, modeling, and visualization tools capable of dealing with non-linear and complex phenomena emerging in large populations. Unlike other cyberinfrastructure (CI) efforts, EpiC proposes the design, implementation, validation, and community support of a “bazaar” – like infrastructure that will be a marketplace for epidemics resources. EpiC will provide members of the scientific research community at large with the means to carry out data analysis, modeling, and visualization at multiple levels of analysis of social contagion and epidemic processes.
