One of the key methods for gaining insight into the unknowns of the COVID-19 pandemic is to use simulation modeling. This is true for many disciplines across business and research, as reflected in the collection of public models being uploaded to AnyLogic Cloud. Here we gather a variety of COVID-19 related simulation models.
See the models and try them out!
Rapid and efficient response will always have a positive effect during and after any disaster. Natural and man-made events have increased in number and severity and adding new tools, technologies and simulation models to existing national preparedness systems improves resource coordination at the community level.
A group from George Washington University completed a project to study the critical nature of designing an effective response team including the decision-making challenges in which a response manager must evaluate hundreds of possible combinations while taking design configurations into account.
In the wake of a disaster, natural or otherwise, a power outage can cause residual damage and hardships. To reduce the length of power outages, utility companies often have mutual aid agreements in place. Mutual aid agreements provide a mechanism to acquire emergency assistance quickly in the form of materials, equipment, personnel and other relevant services. There are many factors that drive the deployment of assistance during a disaster (i.e. distance, urgency, cost, extent of damage, etc.) To help utility companies make better, faster decisions, York University applied simulation modeling with AnyLogic software to manage the process of mutual assistance. Learn more via the case study or recorded presentations from AnyLogic Conference 2015.
Alexander Doroshenko, Weicheng Qian and Nathaniel D. Osgood from the Division of Preventive Medicine at the University of Alberta in Canada were recently published in PeerJ, an Open Access, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal. It considers and publishes Research Articles in Biological and Medical Sciences. The objective of the University of Alberta project was to investigate the effect of outbreak response immunization (ORI) among adolescents as an emergency public health intervention in light of a recent re-emergence of pertussis outbreaks. ORI is supplementary immunization given over and above the routine vaccination schedule, including to those who may be fully immunized or those who did not receive their scheduled vaccines.
Disaster, whether manmade or natural, can have a catastrophic impact on a populated area. Sometimes, the disaster is so devastating that it requires a large-scale evacuation. As a result, evacuation plans have become a necessity. The Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin Regional Catastrophic Planning Team looked to improve their plan and employed A, Kirby, J.E. Dietz, E. Matson, J. Pekny, and C. Wojtalewicz from the Department of Computer and Information Technology, Purdue University, and J. Pekny from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University to do so. This project's goal was to provide data on the optimal staff, materials, space and time resources required to operate a regional hub reception center, a “short-term facility with the goal to process and transport displaced survivors (evacuees) to temporary or permanent shelters following a catastrophic incident” (Bonabeau, 2002).
AnyLogic, utilized for active shooter scenario research by Adam Kirby, Ph D Student, and Dr. J. Eric Dietz, Professor at the Purdue Homeland Security Institute (PHSI), was showcased for the second time on WLFI - News 18 last Friday. Adam Kirby and Professor Dietz are using their work to encourage people to think scientifically versus emotionally when debating gun control. Watch the news clips.
It is my pleasure to introduce Dr. J. Eric Dietz Director of Purdue Homeland Security Institute (PHSI) and share with you the programs he has driven to success, as he is a long-time user and advocate of AnyLogic and agent-based modeling. Since retiring as Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Army in 2004, Dr. Dietz’s list of accomplishments is overwhelming in the fields of homeland security, public safety, risk management, critical infrastructure protection, and emergency planning for both Purdue University and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.
In any evacuation scenario, congestion is what restricts the ability of people (cars) to move away from danger. We’re all familiar with typical rush hour, which impedes the mobility of individual vehicles and significantly slows the overall flow of traffic. This phenomenon is compounded by events of mass mobilization, such as during an evacuation due to a hurricane or other event. In an evacuation all traffic is essentially trying to leave via two or three major highways, which quickly become completely gridlocked. One of the oldest and largest independent, non-profit, applied research and development organizations in the US sought to understand the system-level effects on traffic during an evacuation event when some percentage of the vehicles within the traffic system were connected via a communication mechanism, such as a smartphone or a dedicated short range communication (DSRC) radio, which is the type of device required for the USDOT connected vehicle program.
The largest public mental health facility in the United States is not a hospital; it is the Los Angeles County Jail. A Severely and Persistently Mentally Ill (SPMI) patient generally defines someone with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, or Major Depressive Disorder, and this group constitutes about 1.7% of the US population. To better understand the condition and possible improvements, IBM Global Research and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals used an agent-based approach to model the SPMI living situations over the second half of the 20th century. Kyle Johnson, Managing Consultant with IBM Global Business Services presented this project at the 2014 AnyLogic Conference. He works within the Advanced Analytics and Optimization branch of IBM BAO.
