National Research Experience for Undergraduates Program (NREUP)

Since emerging in early 2020, COVID-19 has affected over 100 million people worldwide and killed at least 3 million. The pandemic has prompted an unprecedented global response which has included global lockdowns, travel restrictions, and a massive vaccine development and rollout initiative.

Throughout the pandemic, mathematical modeling has played a primary role in guiding public policy interventions by forecasting the disease’s spread under a variety of public policy interventions. The disease, meanwhile, has cruelly and disproportionately affected minority communities, such as those in Metro Detroit and broader Michigan, where the case mortality rate is over twice as high for blacks as whites.

The primary objective of this project is engaging black students in vital mathematical research with the goal of creating an enduring environment of opportunity and inclusion for the black community in the Metro Detroit region.

Research Focus

We will focus on developing and analyzing dynamical systems models of disease spread, with a focus on COVID-19. We will start by considering the SIR (Susceptible-Infected-Removed) model for the spread of an infectious disease. We will then brainstorm for further features to incorporate in our models which would be relevant to the dynamical behavior of COVID-19. We have identified the following questions as starting points for our discussion.

1. The spread and lethality of COVID-19 has varied significantly across different regions, age groups, and ethnicities. In light of this, can we meaningfully incorporate regional and demographic variation into our models? Do these models supporting implementing different interventions strategies for different subpopulations?
2. Normal screening protocols like symptom reporting and temperature checks do not catch asymptomatic spreaders of COVID-19. Can we incorporate asymptomatic transmission into our models? Do these models justify the population-wide lockdowns and quarantines we have seen?
3. The transmission of COVID-19 is influenced by social behavior while, conversely, adherence to restrictive social behaviors is influenced by the prevalence of disease. Can we capture the dynamic interplay between disease spread and social behavior in our models? Are these models sufficient to explain the disease dynamics we have seen, such as secondary waves of infection?

The program will focus on building mathematical models of infectious disease spread using tools from dynamical systems theory. This is an important application of mathematical epidemiology, which utilizes mathematical tools from several different topic areas, including calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, dynamical systems, and scientific computing.

• Antwan Green, Project Title: Vivacious Vaccines and the Spread of Immunity
• Steven Harris, Project Title: College Residence Life COVID-19 Quarantine and Athletics Analysis
• Jalen Jackson, Project Title: The Impact of Social Distancing and Vaccination on Controlling COVID-19 Outbreaks in Michigan
• Temidayo Ogunmodede, Project Title: How COVID-19 Has Affected Individual States in the USA
• Noah Stamboulieh, Project Title: The Effect of the Vaccination Rate and Social Distancing on the Severity of Our COVID-19 Pandemic

The following is a schedule of group events, lectures, and presentations. Unscheduled time will be spent on independent and group research activities. On-campus activities will take place in S126 and the remainder will be available through Zoom.

Student Events

Public Events

The events below are publicly available through the Zoom link. All talks below are from 1-2 p.m. ET unless indicated otherwise.