Modeling and Stability Analysis of Epidemic Dynamics over Networks

Caroyln Beck
Professor, Arthur Davis Faculty Scholar, Grainger College of Engineering
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Associate Head for Undergraduate Programs
Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract: The study of epidemic processes has been of interest over a wide range of fields for the past century, including in mathematical systems, biology, physics, computer science, social sciences and economics. Recently there has been renewed interest in the study of epidemic processes focused on the spread of viruses over networks, motivated not only by recent outbreaks of infectious diseases, but also by the rapid spread of opinions over social networks, and the security threats posed by computer viruses. In this talk we will discuss modeling and convergence analysis results for epidemic processes over both static and time-varying networks, with the goal being to elucidate the behavior of such spread processes. Multi-strain models, and issues arising from epidemic modeling and prediction based on the use of data from ongoing viral outbreaks will also be discussed as time allows. Simulation results and potential mitigation actions will be reviewed to conclude the talk.

Bio: Carolyn received her PhD from Caltech, her MS from CMU, and her BS from Cal Poly, all in Electrical Engineering. Prior to her PhD studies, she worked as a Research and Development Engineer for Hewlett-Packard in Silicon Valley. She is currently a Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, and has held visiting positions at KTH (Stockholm, Sweden), Stanford University and Lund University (Sweden). She serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, and on the IEEE Board of Governors for the Control Systems Society. Carolyn is an IEEE Fellow, and was the recipient of a NSF CAREER Award, an ONR Young Investigator Award, and local teaching honors. Her research interests lie in the development of model approximation methods, network inference and aggregation, and distributed optimization and control, with applications to epidemic processes and energy networks.