Title: Learning to build network-oriented epidemic simulation models in epidemiology education

Authors: Ji-Lung Hsieh, Chung-Yuan Huang, Chuen-Tsai Sun, Yu-Shiuan Tsai, Gloria Yi-Ming Kao

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Ta Hsueh Road, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, Republic of China. ' Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering and Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections, Chang Gung University, 259 Wen Hwa 1st Road, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan, Republic of China. ' Department of Computer Science, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Ta Hsueh Road, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, Republic of China. ' Department of Computer Science, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Ta Hsueh Road, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, Republic of China. ' Department of Information Communication, Yuan Ze University, 135 Yuan-Tung Road, Chung-Li 32003, Taiwan, Republic of China

Abstract: Epidemic simulations and intervention strategy assessments are attracting interest in light of recent and potential outbreaks of infectious diseases such as SARS and avian flu. Universities are using computational modelling and simulation tools to teach epidemiology concepts to students, but integrating domain-specific knowledge and building network-based simulation models are difficult tasks in terms of teacher preparation and learner evaluation. To illustrate challenges to creating network-oriented models in epidemiology education, we introduce an architecture based on demographic and geographic data for building network-oriented epidemic simulation models, and describe our experiences simulating the transmission dynamics of three infectious diseases in Taiwan.

Keywords: computational modelling; network-oriented simulation models; epidemic dynamics; bipartite networks; social mirror identities; cellular automata; SARS; HIV; seasonal influenza; avian flu; epidemiology education; demographics; geographic data; transmission dynamics; infectious diseases; Taiwan.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2009.025825

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2009 Vol.5 No.1, pp.31 - 41

Received: 29 May 2008
Accepted: 22 Sep 2008
Published online: 24 May 2009 *

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