1. Introduction and Contents

The spread of an infectious disease involves many factors such as the agent (virus, bacteria, etc.), the host, and the environment in which transmissions take place. The purpose of modeling infectious diseases, in relation to public health, is to evaluate the process of disease spread and the most effective interventions required. Mathematical modeling of infectious diseases is growing in importance because of the various issues in disease spread and control arising from new or newly emerging diseases (e.g., COVID-19, SARS, dengue, Ebola, avian influenza, Zika, etc.), and because increasing data sources are now available for studying disease transmission, pathogen evolution and the impact of social behavior of the hosts. Utilizing data sources to understand the subsequent impacts on disease spread requires detailed modeling of interactions amongst pathogens and hosts, training of sophisticated modelers and development of new mathematics. 

The course is thus designed to promote interdisciplinary research in mathematical epidemiology and modeling/analysis of infectious diseases. A major component of this course is to create an environment for initiating and facilitating future interdisciplinary collaborations between infectious disease modelers and public health researcher. The central theme and aim of this networking activity is to forge strong links between theory and practice. Prospective students suitable for this course are those who had undergraduate studies in natural sciences (math, statistics, physics, etc.) or in public health/biomedical programs, and are interested in interdisciplinary research in mathematical epidemiology and modeling/analysis of infectious diseases. Undergraduate students, Graduate students, Postdoctoral researcher, and young researchers are all welcomed. The course will provide exposure to students and young researchers to an interdisciplinary environment that foster cross-disciplinary interaction and networking at early stages of young researchers’ careers, and nurture future modelers of infectious diseases in Taiwan that will both contribute to interdisciplinary academic research in Taiwan, as well as to future public health policy-planning in the age of globalization.

 

2. Prerequisites

The course will begin with tutorial sessions of two divided classes on the first day, for students with respective public health/biomedical and mathematics/natural sciences backgrounds, focusing on respective basic mathematics and infectious disease epidemiology knowledge required for modeling of infectious diseases, followed by combined interdisciplinary lectures and infectious disease issue-driven group discussion sessions. 

Lecturers for this one-week course include internationally well-known experts on modeling of infectious diseases from interdisciplinary backgrounds, as well as medical experts from Epidemic Intelligence Center, Taiwan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (TCDC). There will be a site visit to Taiwan CDC as well. The topics will include basic of infectious diseases and modeling; model construction; infectious disease data and modeling; computational techniques for modeling; parameter estimation; current infectious diseases in Taiwan; group project sessions; group project proposals; and a field trip to visit Taiwan CDC headquarter.

 

3. Arrangement

Libin Rong:         4 lectures (8 hrs, including project proposals)  

Naveen K. Vaidya:    3 lectures (6 hrs, including project proposals)  

Jonathan Dushoff:    3 lectures (6 hrs, including project proposals)  

Hiroshi Nishiura:     3 lectures (6 hrs, including project proposals)   

Andrei Akhmetzhanov:  2 lectures (4 hrs, including a site visit to Taiwan CDC) 

CDC的鄭皓元醫師:   1 lecture (2 hrs)  

林先和教授:  group project presentation (4 hrs)

 

4. Grading Scheme

Final report + project presentation

 

5. Credit  2

 

6. Registration

https://forms.gle/9K3Nb1kDwnJkxpxg6