IMMC-QEF Teachers & Students Workshop
Math Modeling in Public Health and Data Visualization
Date: 28 & 29 Mar (Students), 30 Mar (Teachers) 2019 Venue: The University of Hong Kong & The City University of Hong Kong
Dr. He Daihai 何岱海博士
Associate Professor, Department of Applied Mathematics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
https://www.polyu.edu.hk/ama/people/detail/20/
Email: daihai.he@polyu.edu.hk
Personal Website: http://www.mypolyuweb.hk/~d898he/
Research Interests:
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Mathematical Epidemiology
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Statistical Inference of Stochastic Process
Recently, the number of Measles infection in HK is increasing, the fear spreads in the city quickly. Besides the efforts of healthcare workers and Entry and Exit Port control, Mathematics is also helpful in control and prevention of diseases. Last Thursday to Saturday, we invited Dr. He Daihai from the Department of Applied Mathematics of Hong Kong PolyU to give us workshop with title, "Math Modeling in Public Health and Data Visualization". Dr. He introduced the math model in communicable diseases and how to draw the graph of related math equations with R Language. The venue is supported by the Department of Mathematics of University of Hong Kong and the College of Business, City University of Hong Kong.
One of the major focuses of Dr He's research work is the math model in Epidemiology.
In the workshop, he firstly showed the Florence Nightingale's Rose Diagram of the Causes of Mortality and the map about the cholera outbreak in Britain which was created by John Snow.
Then Dr. He talked about the math model of communicable diseases and math model for Malaria developed by Sir Ronald Ross.
Later he used a movie called "Contagion" as an example to illustrate the concept of "Basic Reproductive Number". "Basic Reproductive Number" is a quantity which tells us how "infectious" a disease is. For example, if R_0 is 2 which means that one patient can transmit the disease to 2 people, then to 4 people, and then 8, and so on.
After that, Dr. He illustrated that SIR model is a model that takes 3 factors into consideration: "Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered". He explained the meaning of the model and showed the R_0 value of different diseases, such as flu, SARS and Measles. (The R_0 of measles is larger than 10).
SIR model can be adjusted with different variables under various situations. For instance, it can be modified with the factor of Birth and Death.(SIR Model with vital dynamics). And we can find the average age at infectious after some calculation.
Finally, Dr. He taught teachers and students how to use R Language with Euler Method to solve the SIR equations. Moreover, He introduced his researches and some cutting edge topics to let teachers and students know that math(modeling) is widely applied in epidemiology.
We thank Dr. He for his precious time to conduct the 3 days workshop and teachers and students who attended our workshop. We appreciate the venue support from the University of Hong Kong and the City University of Hong Kong.
On the coming April 26 & 27, the Finalists Presentation of IMMC (Greater China Region) will be held at the Faculty of Engineering, Chinese University of Hong Kong. We welcome all the teachers and students who are interested in or are preparing for the next IMMC