Real-time epidemiology and epidemic containment using mobile communications and social media

Smartphones and online social media potentially offer new ways to monitor and contain epidemics.  Possible uses are to collect information about an epidemic while it is happening, to assist decision making, to provide methods to trace and warn infectious contacts in real time, to provide personalised recommendations for social distancing, and to coordinate community-wide mutual assistance without people having to meet.

This technology and its potential consequences needs to be considered in its social context. 

The student would implement demonstration applications for phones and social media, validate them experimentally as far as possible, and would analyse some of the significant  ethical, managerial, and legal questions that such techniques would raise. 

To be jointly supervised by Dr Chris Watkins (CS) and Dr Dorothea Kleine (Director of the ICT4D Centre, Department of Geography   www.ict4d.org.uk ).

http://www.ict4d.org.uk/
http://www.cs.rhul.ac.uk/home/chrisw/
http://pure.rhul.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/dorothea-kleine_0116a911-ad46-465f-be06-8d607b362b4d.html

Keywords: smartphones, social media, ICT4D, UNESCO