FLC | Four federal labs partner to fight COVID-19 with computer modeling

Four federal labs partner to fight COVID-19 with computer modeling

April 1, 2020

For at least the next three months, Los Alamos, Sandia, Argonne, and Oak Ridge national laboratories will collaborate to develop an integrated COVID-19 pandemic monitoring, modeling, and analysis capability.

"The work builds on existing spatial demography and human dynamics research, agent-based modeling systems, infrastructure-, and economic- and risk-modeling capabilities," said Kirsten Taylor-McCabe, a biochemist and National Defense and Security Program manager for Los Alamos National Laboratory. "Integrating these components with scalable data and computing capabilities, the four laboratories will work together to rapidly develop a COVID-19 analysis framework and multiscale modeling system. They will also develop a scalable COVID-19 data collection process and integrated team that will respond to the near real-time needs of supporting U.S. policy makers."

The goal is to provide routine and frequent modeling and analysis deliverables to DOE and federal government leadership, and to revise the analysis and modeling goals on demand. This joint framework will answer questions about alternative options for interventions and preparedness for our healthcare system. It will also track the ongoing, deepening understanding of the disease and the risks to various demographic and age groups.

"In addition, the COVID-19 analysis framework will give U.S. government leadership improved situational awareness, offering improved insight into what is happening in different regions of the country, exploring how different areas and populations are responding and reacting to changing conditions and varied intervention strategies," Taylor-McCabe said.