Ashley Micuda receives prize at the Candian Undergraduate Physics Conference

The title of Ashley's talk was Novel Methods to Model the Spread of COVID-19 in Kingston and Inform Public Health Policy. 

The presentation discussed a study currently being conducted by a group of multidisciplinary undergraduate students at Queens. We are creating a novel model for the propagation of COVID-19 in Kingston and to understand the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions. The simulation is a Monte Carlo agent-based model that uses known COVID-19 parameters to study how interventions such as lockdowns, masks and vaccines impact the spread. The modelling framework was originally developed in the context of research with an all-physics group over the summer of 2020 and has since been enhanced by adding the input of students from other disciplines. Preliminary findings that highlighted the reduction in spread with the implementation of masks and lockdowns were showcased in the presentation. We are currently conducting a more specific study into the effects of vaccination in a medium city with a highly vaccinated university population and a highly contagious variant using this complex simulation.

Please check out this year's CUPC for more information.