November 2021 CIC Webinar Recap

Editor's note:

Guest Post: Saanya Subasinghe

A recording of this event is available at the Northeast Big Data Hub’s YouTube channel as well as at covidinfocommons.net. The COVID Information Commons is an NSF-funded project brought to you by the Big Data Innovation Hubs, led by the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub at Columbia University.


This month’s COVID Information Commons (CIC) webinar took place on the 15th of November 2021. In this forum, four leading COVID-19 scientists funded by the NSF and NIH presented their current research on the global pandemic. The discussion was moderated by Florence Hudson, Executive Director of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub at Columbia University. The COVID-19 Research Webinar series is managed by the COVID Information Commons (CIC) and the Big Data Innovation Hubs and is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The four researchers presented on a wide variety of topics, each touching on broader themes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We first heard from Michael Cherktov, from the University of Arizona. Professor Chertkov discussed his graphical and agent based data models for the pandemic. He concluded with a review of his modeling pipeline and inference models, which can be implemented for future study. Next, Amanda Leggett, a Research Assistant Professor from the University of Michigan, presented her research on the challenges of providing routine care to patients with dementia during the pandemic. Professor Leggett’s presentation touched upon the professional and personal impacts the COVID-19 outbreak had on medical caregivers in the U.S. Next, Helena Solo-Gabriele from the University of Miami spoke about her research on wastewater-based monitoring at the University of Miami from May through September 2021. The aim of this analysis was to more accurately predict COVID outbreaks among student, faculty and staff populations. Finally, Asheley Landrum from Texas Tech University presented her research on how young adults’ science knowledge and engagement is influenced by popular media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Following the four presentations, Florence Hudson hosted a Q&A session where audience and community members engaged in a fruitful discussion with the researchers.


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November 15, 2021