The team quickly developed computer models to estimate Covid-19 spread and informed policies to control it.
A team of researchers from the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics has been awarded the Jay Wright Forrester Award for the best contribution to system dynamics over the last five years.
The award is named after the pioneering US computer engineering and system scientist who died in 2016. The team received the honour for their work on identifying policies to control the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
They published a study, ‘An age-cohort simulation model for generating COVID-19 scenarios: A study from Ireland’s pandemic response’, in the European Journal of Operational Research in early 2024.
Prof Jim Duggan, Prof Brendan Murphy, Prof James P Gleeson and Prof Cathal Walsh co-authored the paper alongside Dr Jair Andrade, Prof Cathal Walsh and Prof Philip Nolan.
The study arose through their work with the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group (IEMAG), which was created in March 2020 to help Ireland respond to the Covid pandemic.
The study helped experts identify helpful policies to control the spread of the virus. It also demonstrated how system dynamics, a tech-aided approach for public safety responses, could be applied to control Covid.
In the paper, Insight researchers describe a computer simulation model designed to generate disease incidence projections for a rapidly mutating virus such as SARS-Cov-2.
According to the Systems Dynamics Society, the team’s work represents an “outstanding” application of this approach. “Their results helped the authorities address one of the largest threats to public health in a generation.” Their work continues to advise the HSE in public health governance.
“We are delighted to receive the Jay W Forrester Award for our modelling contribution to Ireland’s pandemic response,” said Duggan.
“We also acknowledge the key role the Insight Centre for Data Analytics played in supporting our research, as the Centre provided an outstanding environment for interdisciplinary collaboration, and these interactions between different scientific fields greatly benefited our model building work within IEMAG.”
Suhasini Srinivasaragavan
This article originally appeared on www.siliconrepublic.com and can be found here
A team of researchers from the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics has been awarded the Jay Wright Forrester Award for the best contribution to system dynamics over the last five years.
The award is named after the pioneering US computer engineering and system scientist who died in 2016. The team received the honour for their work on identifying policies to control the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
They published a study, ‘An age-cohort simulation model for generating COVID-19 scenarios: A study from Ireland’s pandemic response’, in the European Journal of Operational Research in early 2024.
Prof Jim Duggan, Prof Brendan Murphy, Prof James P Gleeson and Prof Cathal Walsh co-authored the paper alongside Dr Jair Andrade, Prof Cathal Walsh and Prof Philip Nolan.
The study arose through their work with the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group (IEMAG), which was created in March 2020 to help Ireland respond to the Covid pandemic.
The study helped experts identify helpful policies to control the spread of the virus. It also demonstrated how system dynamics, a tech-aided approach for public safety responses, could be applied to control Covid.
In the paper, Insight researchers describe a computer simulation model designed to generate disease incidence projections for a rapidly mutating virus such as SARS-Cov-2.
According to the Systems Dynamics Society, the team’s work represents an “outstanding” application of this approach. “Their results helped the authorities address one of the largest threats to public health in a generation.” Their work continues to advise the HSE in public health governance.
“We are delighted to receive the Jay W Forrester Award for our modelling contribution to Ireland’s pandemic response,” said Duggan.
“We also acknowledge the key role the Insight Centre for Data Analytics played in supporting our research, as the Centre provided an outstanding environment for interdisciplinary collaboration, and these interactions between different scientific fields greatly benefited our model building work within IEMAG.”
Suhasini Srinivasaragavan
This article originally appeared on www.siliconrepublic.com and can be found here
