news, talks

Epifor @ ECCS12 Sept. 7, 2012

EpiFor team participated to the European Conference on Complex Systems (ECCS) 2012  that took place at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, BE, September 3-7. 

The conference is one of the leading events in Complex Systems Science that every year gathers together researchers from different communities engaged in Complex Systems research. The three days of the main conference cover a broad range of research domains including Life Sciences, Statistical Physics and Network Theory, Policy making and Planning, Collective Behavior and Economics. In addition, two days are dedicated to satellite events focusing on more specific topics. 

The EpiFor contribution to the conference included three talks and the organization of a Satellite Meeting. Have a look to the conference program and to the post dedicated to the Satellite.  


 Chiara Poletto presented her recent studies at the plenary session of the main conference. Her contribution, titled  “Heterogeneous Human Mobility Behavior And Spatial Spread of Infectious Diseases”, focused on the impact of complex aspects of human travel behavior on the spatial spread of epidemics. In particular Chiara discussed the role of travel duration, travel frequency and mixing patterns on the invasion potential of epidemics and their unfolding dynamics. More details can be found in the recent publication "Heterogeneous length of stay of hosts’ movements and spatial epidemic spread" 

Paolo Bajardi took part in the Satellite Meeting organized by EpiFor, Data-driven Modeling of Contagious Processes, presenting his recent work aimed at “Optimizing surveillance for livestock disease spreading thorough animal movements”. The talk presented a novel characterization of the dynamical phenomena of livestock movements and introduced a general framework to assess the impact of the temporal mobility patterns on epidemic spreading. The results open the path to new computational approaches that fully integrate the dynamical nature of the network to realistically describe a spreading process and devise specific interventions. More details can be found in the recent publication "Optimizing surveillance for livestock disease spreading through animal movements".

Vittoria Colizza was invited to present at the satellite meeting Complexity paradigms for Smart, Green and Integrated Transport 2012. Her contribution titled “Multiscale transport systems and the spread of infectious diseases” presented results on the crucial role of modern transportation infrastructures on disease emergence and propagation, pointing out the political, and environmental implications of pandemic events, and opening the debate on the new risks faced by the nowadays society.