The University Times reports that the CBE’s very own Jongwook Woo is spearheading a faculty-student team to develop tools that government and health officials can use to combat the coronavirus. Woo, a Computer Information System professor and Director of the campus’ Big Data AI center, has been studying big data analysis and prediction for years.
“After the crisis occurred, I felt like we could contribute to the community to show real-time data that can see the future,” Woo explained. “We see many charts that show coronavirus confirmed cases and new cases every day, but we want to predict the future. For example, how many new cases will occur tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.”
Under Woo’s supervision, Dalyapraz Dauletbak, a 2019 graduate of the Master of Science in Information Systems program, created the interactive data visualization dashboard. Citing John Hopkins University’s COVID-19 map as inspiration, Dauletbak wanted to develop a simpler tool that made it easier to track by location and draw comparisons nationwide.
“I wanted to develop a simple tool where you can easily drill into the state/region of interest and see the trend line of confirmed and new cases as well deaths over time and compare to other states/regions,” Dauletbak told the university.
Monika Mishra, another researcher under Professor Woo’s supervision, created a different interactive dashboard that gathers the latest COVID-19 statistics and presents the countries with the highest risk: United States, Spain, and Italy.
Aside from creating the interactive dashboards, the team of researchers, “developed a predictive model using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that determines COVID-19 patient health risks and predicts mortality risk to help hospitals and medical facilities,” according to the university.
“I commend our faculty, students, and staff for their continued dedication to engagement and service for the public good during this difficult and uncertain period,” said Cal State LA President William A. Covino.
Executive Vice President and Provost Jose A. Gomez added: “These research contributions exemplify the commitment of our entire University community as we work together to fulfill Cal State LA’s mission amid this pandemic.”
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