2019 NIMBioS-NSA REU Program
Modeling networking and the opioid epidemic
Participants:
Vincent Jodoin, Mathematics-Education, Univ. of Tennessee
Sheridan Payne, Mathematics, Bellarmine Univ.
Meagan Todd, Systems Biology, Virginia Tech
Mentors:
Dr. Christopher Strickland, Mathematics, Univ. of Tennessee
Dr. Suzanne Lenhart, NIMBioS Assoc. Director for Education & Outreach; Mathematics, Univ. of Tennessee
Project Description.
Opioid addiction has become a national health crisis in recent years, with the number of opioid overdose fatalities increasing. This project will begin by discussing structural properties of social networks in the context of opioid drug addiction and recovery, including mathematical metrics for the network and the epidemic as a whole. Examples include the role of support groups and formation of new contacts for illicit procurement of opioids. An overarching goal will be to better understand how addiction epidemics affect the social structure of a community and how network models might help us identify strategies for control. We will start by building an agent-based model to gain intuition and later adapt our approach as appropriate.
Return to REU 2019.
NIMBioS
1122 Volunteer Blvd., Suite 106
University of Tennessee
Knoxville,
TN 37996-3410
PH: (865) 974-9334
FAX: (865) 974-9461
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