PBHLTH 252B
Infectious Disease Modeling
This course will lead students through the process of designing mathematical models of infectious diseases, fitting these models to data, and using them as public health tools to design effective control strategies. Examples are drawn from COVID-19, HIV, influenza, Ebola, and mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and Zika virus. Each class consists of a lecture followed by a computer-based activity to apply the material. Students also work on a project in which they design their own model and use it to answer a specific research question.
Topics
- 1. Design compartmental models of infectious diseases, 2. Understand the role of heterogeneity, especially in sexually-transmitted infectious, 3. Understand the importance of stochasticity in outbreak modeling, 4. Estimate parameters, such as the basic reproductive number, R0, from epidemiological data, 5. Fit mathematical models to incidence and prevalence data, 6. Incorporate interventions into infectious disease models.
Official catalogue course objectives and student learning outcomes
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027