A UCF student is in Knoxville, Tennessee, combining math and biology to research mosquito-borne disease.
Hanna Reed, a mathematics major, accepted the National Institute for Mathematical and Biology Synthesis 麻豆精品 S� highly competitive Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates. Reed heads to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville to work on a biology project. Reed has experience with interdisciplinary research. She 麻豆精品 S檚 been working with Zhisheng Shuai to model phenomena, such as how disease spreads.
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Reed explains what math models can do with an example of how the influenza virus spreads. She says you begin with different populations: people who are susceptible to the flu, infected by the flu and people who have recovered from a strain of flu. Working in a lab, Reed can trace contact rates, duration of infection and recovery. Using math, Reed can show how the flu moves through susceptible people, to infection and to recovered people.
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Last year, Reed studied the modeling of cholera with a team of undergraduate and graduate students, under the guidance of Shuai. The team studied the cholera outbreaks in Haiti, taking into to account the impact of educational intervention regarding sanitation and hygiene. The team presented their findings at the 2017 MMA Mathfest in Chicago, Illinois.
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The skills Reed learned at UCF are what granted her the opportunity to spend her summer researching mosquito-borne illnesses and mosquitos 麻豆精品 S� response to environmental factors. She will work with UT’s Suzanne Lenhart, an applied mathematician, and Rebecca Trout Fryxell, an entomologist.
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When Reed returns to Central Florida she will graduate in August and begin teaching at a local high school.
