MIS Research Center Seminar Series
8:30 AM - 11:15 AM
1st Floor Auditorium, Carlson School of Management

Abstract

The study of bio-terror threats requires a significant improvement in our capabilities to analyze human responses to an attack, both at the level of citizens (individual freedom of mobility, bio-contamination, and the collective feeling of well-being) and at the level of responders and policy makers (coordination, control, planning, and policy formulation). We address these issues using a geography based synthetic environment with artificial and human agents. Computational models of artificial agents' positions, mobility, infection-susceptibility and the state of well-being are developed. Intuitive interfaces are provided for human agents to experiment with complex coordination roles. Together, their behaviors are used to analyze how a bio-terror attack may spread through the population and how its impact may be mitigated by different intervention strategies. The behavior of the artificial agents is calibrated in accordance with standard models from the fields of epidemiology and psychology, and the agents' movements reflect the actual behavior patterns in the city concerned. The representation of human behavior in artificial agents reflects human capabilities, cognitive processes, limitations, and conditions that influence behavior (e.g., morale, stress, panic). We use individual-based epidemiological models for person-to-person contamination scenarios. An important aspect of this work is the development of a scalable architecture for distributed, tera-scale, grid computing. Our results indicate that if the intervention is done early, city block vaccination is most effective; in the intermediate term trace vaccination will be most effective; and if the response is delayed, then mass vaccination is the best strategy. In terms of quarantine strategies, early extreme quarantine is more effective than the city block quarantine. However, for delayed intervention, there is no significant difference between the extreme and city block quarantine strategies.

* This research is partially funded by grants from NSF (DDDAS program), 21 st Century Research and Technology Fund, and DoD's Joint Programs Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense

Biography

Alok Chaturvedi

Dr. Alok R. Chaturvedi is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems at the Krannert School of Management, Purdue University, Director of Purdue Homeland Security Institute (PHSI), Director of Purdue e-Business Research Center, Director of Indiana Consortium for e-business Research, and founder and Chief Technology Officer of Simulex, Inc. Dr. Chaturvedi is an Adjunct Research Staff Member at the Institute for Defense Analyses, a leading think tank on national security matters. His research interests include agent based modeling, computational experimentation environments and business war gaming, homeland security simulations, tera-scale grid computing, computational models of human behaviors, and enterprise systems. He has been researching synthetic environments for ten years. Dr. Chaturvedi has led a multi-disciplinary team to develop a full-fledged Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation (SEAS) with enhanced graphics and visualization to run large-scale experiments for research and simulations for strategic planning and experiential learning. SEAS is currently being used by Joint Forces Command for wargame support, several Fortune 500 companies for strategic planning, and Indiana State for homeland security training. He is one of the founding members of the Virtual Institute for Advanced modeling, involving eight research institutes world wide, organized workshops on Simulation Based Acquisition and on Synthetic Economies at the Institute for Defense Analyses. Dr. Chaturvedi served on several high-level Government task forces on public policy and national security matters. He has extensive consulting experience with organizations such as AT&T, IBM, Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, Abbott Labs, Ernst and Young, and the Department of Defense. He also developed a distributed interactive simulation environment used in core Business courses in Purdue's top-ranked MBA program. He is widely cited as an expert on high performance grid computing, information technology architecture and strategies in the news media.

Dr. Chaturvedi brings start-up experience and 8 years experience with Homeland Security related research, and has extensive experience with leading large-scale projects. His current research funding, listed below, is over $4.5M through major grants from National Science Foundation, Joint Executive Program Office for Chemical and Biological Defense, Indiana 21 st Century Research and Technology Fund, Office of Naval Research, and Defense Acquisition University . He has served as Director of PHSI since 2003, which has grown to include four new centers: the Center for Computational Homeland Security that develops computer based models for food bio-security, virtual ground zero, and chemical attack protection; the Center for the Security of Large-scale Systems , which studies power grid and telecommunications network security; the Center for Sensing and Technology , which builds technologies such as neutron detectors for car bombs and airport security scanning technology; and the Center for Military and Law Enforcement Technology, Training, and Tactics , which prototypes and tests technologies, and brings together military counterterrorism experts with law enforcement agencies to exchange technology, training, and tactics. Dr. Chaturvedi developed Measured Response , which simulates a bio-terrorist attack during a major spectator event and the response at the local, state, and federal levels. This involves senior officials from national and state agencies including the Office of Homeland Security, FBI, CDC, NIH, NSF, National Guard, Coast Guard, and the State Emergency Response Agency. Dr. Chaturvedi has given invited briefings about this exercise to the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Director of Center for Disease Control, the Assistant Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of the Navy's Strategic Studies Group, and the Commanding General of the US Army Accession Command. He is familiar with several approaches the DoD is institutionalizing, including Effect Based Operation and Operational Net Assessment.