DIT PhD Project
Supervisor name & contact details:
Name: Brian Mac Namee & John Kelleher
Email brian.macnamee@dit.ie
John.d.kelleher@dit.ie
Research Centre:
Applied Intelligence Research Centre
The Applied Intelligence Research
Centre researches the application of
computational intelligence technologies to real
world problems. The core competencies of the
AIRC include machine learning, language
technologies, intelligent agents and data
analytics.
Research Centre website:
www.comp.dit.ie/aigroup
Supervisors Publication List:
http://bit.ly/STs2MO
http://bit.ly/QT5Kat
Title of the Project: An Agent Based Epidemiology Model for the Closed Populations
Project Summary: Epidemiology research investigates and models how diseases spread within
the population with aim of forecasting the spread of a particular bacteria in given circumstances.
The ultimate goal is to provide data to define the most efficient and cost effective vaccine
strategy. The objective of the project is create computer game technology a state-of-the-art
agent-based epidemiological simulation platform for the Irish context that can accommodate and
emulate the effect of day-to-day interactions between people on the spreading of a disease. The
project's research method involves the implementation of mathematical and simulation based
models of the spread of diseases in Ireland and comparing the predications made by these
models against a gold-standard dataset. The project has two key deliverables, both of which
involve novel research: (1) creating a computational model of the susceptibility of Irish people to
infections; (2) creating an agent based simulation of the Irish population as an epidemiological
tool. Finally the importance of the project to the Irish context is that this model will provide the
first such model contextualized to the Irish population and as such will be a valuable tool in
planning and managing public health resources in an outbreak crisis situation. The small scale of
the Irish population and geography makes it an ideal test-bed for the development of techniques
that will later be applied to larger geographies such as Brazil.
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)