Unlike previous sessions, the final meeting of the MIDSEA Summer School 2025 Simulation Track on Saturday, June 28, 2025, in the Bima Room at the MICC Building, The Alana Yogyakarta Hotel and Convention Center, was dedicated to project work with no new material presented. Professor Alexander Richard Cook, the track’s speaker from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore (NUS), divided the 14 participants into three groups, assigning a different problem to each. The main focus of this session was group discussions guided by Professor Cook.
For these projects, which will be presented tomorrow, June 29, 2025, Group 1 was given a problem concerning an influenza outbreak in a boarding school. Group members were asked to define a network model for influenza transmission in the boarding school and simulate this model to investigate the impact of eliminating activities involving student interaction on the outbreak. Group 2 was tasked with simulating two types of models: one with a mean-field assumption and a network-based model. They were then asked to compare the two and explain the importance of constructing a network-based model. Finally, Group 3 was asked to simulate a network model of COVID-19 spread with interventions such as isolating infected individuals and quarantine. They were to investigate whether these interventions could reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
The session concluded with Professor Cook presenting certificates to each track participant, followed by a group photo. Discussions within each group regarding their assigned projects continued into the self-study session after the lunch break. Through this project work, participants in the Simulation Track are expected to implement the material Professor Cook has delivered since the first meeting, enabling them to construct realistic infectious disease models and simulate them using RStudio.
Keywords: MIDSEA, Modelling, Infectious Diseases Modelling
Author: Citra Rizqin Sulistyaningsih
Photos: Lucetta Amarakamini