As the world is emerging from waves of Coronavirus infections and facing new threats of virus outbreaks, the scientist in us may ask: how can we model such outbreaks? One common approach is to use so-called “compartmental models”, and in particular the SIR-model. Here, the individuals of the population fall into one of the following three categories: Susceptible, Infected or Recovered.
In summer 2019, right before my final year of undergraduate studies was about to start, I watched the judo world championships with my father. This was the year the International Judo Federation used a 4DREPLAY system for the first time. This system was used to replay the important moments in which players executed successful techniques, from every angle.
Computational modelling of the COVID-19 pandemic has been playing a significant role in the UK's effort to combat COVID-19. Across the country, there are about 100 research teams working on different models, and several dozens have provided simulation, estimation, and prediction to inform the governmental decisions in the four home nations.