Epidemic Spreading Simulator and Assessment System: Visualization

Abstract

A simulator model, used to map the spread of a virus across a population, serves the vital purpose of allowing researchers to study said propagation. There are many key elements, amongst others the infectivity of a disease, the public's response towards the disease etc., that plays a role in determining the number of infections, recoveries, and even deaths. It is therefore of critical importance to understand these elements and develop strategies that allow societies to reduce the resulting damage. In this project, my objective was to develop a simulator model, which could be used to accurately replicate real-world results produced by a virus' spread. Following this, the simulator was used to study the effects that changing different components of the virus and society's behaviour can have on the spread of the virus. Features of the simulator include an area that visually displays our population's mobility and the disease's spread, graphs displaying the results produced by each simulation, and the ability to manipulate (increase and decrease) several variables present in the disease spreading. The simulator follows a SIR (Susceptible-Infected-Recovered) model, with the additional classification of people who have been identified as being infected and removed from the population. The simulator also possesses the ability to run several iterations for a specified set of variables, while averaging outputs across the simulations. Supplementary to this, I strove to imbue my scientifically accurate simulator with a user-friendly and enjoyable interface, which could be used to draw public attention to it. By not confining the use of a simulator to the expertise of the scientific community, I developed a much-needed channel for reliable education of the public on the factors influencing disease spread. Subsequently, this would increase the general understanding of diseases including why certain practices (washing hands) should be adopted and why people should obey governmental policies (interaction reduction).