EpiC: A Cyberinfrastructure that Supports the Plug-and-Play of Datasets & Algori

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The study of epidemic and social contagion processes is crucial for the understanding, prediction, and prevention of many phenomena affecting public health, such as infectious disease, alcohol use, and smoking habits. Improving epidemic and social contagion research is therefore important to the goals of the NIDA, NIAID and NIGMS institutes. Research progress in this area is difficult because the datasets and processes unfold over multiple temporal and spatial scales, requiring applied mathematical and computational approaches that can cope with non-linear complex phenomena. This requires an integrated research approach where the many layers - from the single individual to the global society - are analyzed at once. Such an approach calls for qualitatively new technology that supports the easy exchange, combination, and application of data analysis capabilities, methodologies, and visualization tools developed in very different areas of research. This project proposes the design, implementation, deployment, and maintenance of a computational infrastructure for epidemic research called the Epidemics Cyber infrastructure (EpiC). EpiC is a qualitatively new type of cyber infrastructure -- an "empty shell" that supports the easy plug-and-play of datasets, algorithms, and visualization components in customized EpiC Tools. The proposed EpiC infrastructure is also unique in the utilization of a "scholarly marketplace" for sharing commonly used datasets, algorithms, and visualization components - the "fillings" of the EpiC Tools. The marketplace might be best compared with popular file and content sharing community sites like Flickr (http://flickr.com/), YouTube (http://youtube.com/), or Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org/). However, instead of sharing images, movies, or encyclopedia entries, scholars will use EpiC to share datasets, algorithms, and any other items relevant to the study of epidemics. The overarching goals of EpiC are the improvement and facilitation of multi-scale analysis of social data integrated into dynamic systems modeling, agent-based modeling, and other simulation techniques for epidemic processes; the direct transfer of knowledge and results from fields of specialist research to the wider interdisciplinary scientific community; and the development of a cyber infrastructure technology that is open, usable, extensible, and sustainable. This project proposes the design, implementation, deployment, and maintenance of a computational infrastructure for epidemic research called Epidemics Cyber infrastructure (EpiC) for the improvement and facilitation of the multi-scale analysis of social data and their integration in systems dynamic modeling, agent-based modeling, and other simulation techniques for epidemic processes. EpiC is a qualitatively new type of cyber infrastructure -- an "empty shell" that supports the easy plug-and-play of datasets, algorithms, and visualization components in customized EpiC Tools. The proposed EpiC infrastructure is also unique in the utilization of a "scholarly marketplace" to share commonly used datasets, algorithms, and visualization components - the "fillings" of the EpiC Tools.