Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention: Heterogeneous Model Integration for Infectious Disease Intelligence, Phase 1

Title: “Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention: Heterogeneous Model Integration for Infectious Disease Intelligence, Phase 1”

Proposal submitted to the National Science Foundation, October 4, 2021.

Proposal requested amount: $1,171,745

PI and Co-PIs: John Drake (Professor, Odum School of Ecology, UGA) (PI); with co-PIs: Bogdan Epureanu (Professor, College of Engineering, University of Michigan); Pejman Rohani (Professor, Odum School of Ecology, UGA); Barbara Han (Disease Ecologist, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies); and Glen Nowak (Grady College, UGA).

Project Summary:  The proposal involves a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional project designed to transform the science of epidemic intelligence. The project will apply the engineering System-of-Systems (SoS) concept to the problem of integrating infectious disease models across disciplinary paradigms and scales. The activities in the proposed Phase 1 project include the development of a vision paper that outlines this idea and provides a blueprint for a Phase 2 application; six interdisciplinary demonstration projects that apply SoS thinking to problems at the intersection of biology, computer science, social science (including risk communication), and engineering; and training of undergraduates, graduate students, and a postdoctoral associate.