ST. ALBANS Theres a mystery at St. Albans City School and Detective Botley Blockly is on the case!

To celebrate Computer Science Week, St. Albans City School has extended their annual Day of Code event to encompass the entire month of December. As part of the experience, students were visited by two interesting characters: Det. Botley Blockly and the Rankin-Bot 3000. Through a video clue, students learned the mysterious Rankin-Bot had stolen a prized possession of STEAM teacher Mrs. Rankin (no relation, honest!), leaving behind only directional puzzle pieces as evidence of the crime.

Mrs. Rankin quickly turned to Det. Blockly for assistance, but the case proved to be too much of a challenge even for the talented Detective. She sent out a distress call to all City School students asking for their help in tracking down the stolen item. To do this, the students were given a map to follow. In order to navigate the map, they needed to use the directional clues left behind by the Rankin-Bot. Thinking like programmers, the students navigated their way through the map to uncover more clues (in the form of video clips of the world-famous Detective), to ultimately track down the missing item and save the day!

The teachers in charge of this production are Grace Borst and Darcie Rankin. Both are dedicated to teaching kids STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) and helping creative minds develop skills for personal growth and success now and in the future. The students of City School seemed to love the thrill of the hunt and were eager to email Det. Blockly with their proposed solutions. All in all, a lot of fun (and learning!) was had by all in an event that brought a bit of normalcy to an otherwise challenging year. The students cant wait to welcome Det. Blockly back to school, and after a friendly chat, the Rankin-Bot has been invited back as well.

If theres one thing thats certain, theres no case too tricky for the kids at City School and their incredible programming skills.

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St. Albans City School kids were 'on the case' for Computer Science Week. What mystery did they solve? - St. Albans Messenger

A Yale teams research into the COVID-19 pandemics effects on Indias most vulnerable populations, including urban laborers who lost their jobs and returned to the countryside, is providing policymakers the data they need to address the crisis.

Led by two Yale economists Rohini Pande, director of theEconomic Growth Center(EGC), and Charity Troyer Moore, director for South Asia economics research atthe MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies the project informed public policy in real time and highlights the role Yale undergraduates are playing in studying the pandemics economic fallout in the United States and internationally.

Before the pandemic, Pande and Troyer Moores research team had ongoing projects in two Indian states in partnership with Inclusion Economics India, a research group based at Krea University. Once COVID-19 spread to India, their government counterparts in both states identified a need for data concerning the influx of migrant workers from Indias cities following a nationwide lockdown on March 24, 2020, including information on the effectiveness of efforts to support, track, and manage a network of migrant quarantine centers.

The most economically vulnerable groups were going to be hit hardest, both on the health front but also from the economic effects of lockdown, said Pande,the Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics. Many migrants were returning and being located in quarantine centers, but policymakers had no sense for how well these facilities were functioning.

To assist local policymakers, the research team began conducting large-scale surveys of migrants but needed help analyzing and presenting large amounts of data quickly in a way policymakers could easily digest.

At the time, the Yale administration was connecting students whose summer internships had been interrupted by the pandemic with researchers who were seeking to staff COVID-related projects.Pandespoke on a virtual panel about such research opportunities in social science, co-hosted by theFactuly of Arts and Sciences Division of Social Science, theInstitution for Social and Policy Studies(ISPS), and theTobin Center for Economic Policy.

The response was very positive, said Pande. We went in anticipating interest from two or three students, but had over 50 students respond. They hired nine Yale undergrads, mostly economics and computer science majors.

It was exciting to get students involved in cutting-edge research with broader relevance to the world, Troyer Moore said. It was their chance to participate in the global COVID-19 response.

From April to June, the team surveyed nearly 6,000 urban migrants who had returned to their rural homes about their circumstances and wellbeing: their food security, ability to find work, and access to government benefits. Since in-person interviews were not possible during the pandemic, surveys were conducted by phone.

Indias lockdown had been particularly challenging on urban migrants. Unable to work and lacking savings to make ends meet, many returned to their rural homes often walking long distances because air and rail travel had been suspended. Once home, few had job prospects, and many faced discrimination, harassment, and even violence from their neighbors, who worried they might be carrying the virus. With uncertain economic futures, many migrant workers households were dependent on government relief to survive.

The teams research illustrated just how vulnerable migrants were, said Troyer Moore, who described the findings in a virtual panel discussion, Migration in Crisis, which was part of the South Asia Development Dialogues hosted by EGC and the South Asia Studies Council at Yale on November 13. Initially, many migrants found agricultural jobs during the lockdown, which coincided with a season of high agricultural work. But after this work ended, over 75% of migrants reported very significant financial difficulties and over 60% reported reducing consumption during the previous month. They were neither tied to the city, nor to the rural areas, Troyer Moore said.

The research team also found that women and members of Indias historically disadvantaged castes had worse experiences across most of the outcomes being tracked. For example, the percentage of marginalized caste members reporting reduced consumption was 8.5 percentage points higher than the members of other castes, and the percentage of women reporting reduced consumption was 12 percentage points higher than men.

A key goal of the summer project was to help local officials manage migrant quarantine centers. Due to staff and data shortages, the local government lacked an effective way to monitor the centers, identify issues being faced by migrants, or manage resources.

Very often what policymakers struggle with even in the short term is any sense from the data of where the problem is the most significant, said Pande. On a daily basis, government officials need to understand what issues are happening where and how to respond to them.

Combining government data with real-time survey responses, the team built a data dashboard tracking details like the number of migrants arriving at each center and the adequacy of facilities. With graphs and tables that could be filtered and sorted, the data dashboard provided policymakers with a rapid feedback loop and a critical crisis-response tool.

It was exciting to be there as it happened. ... Our work helped inform policymakers about what sorts of actions they needed to take.

Michael Chang 21

It was exciting to be there as it happened, said Michael Chang 21, who is majoring in the interdepartmental Computing and the Arts program and plans to pursue a career in data science. The dashboard helped ministers and officials get a much better idea about where they needed to send resources to help migrant workers. Our work helped inform policymakers about what sorts of actions they needed to take.

With nearly10 million cases, India now has the worlds second-worst COVID-19 outbreak behind the United States. But as this research project underscores, the challenges of managing a pandemic are very different in a country like India, where extreme poverty is widespread, healthcare systems are weak, and high population density makes social distancing difficult.

One of the projects most significant findings was that while social safety nets were critical to migrant wellbeing, state capacity often limited its reach. As the COVID-19 crisis evolves, the Yale teams research is helping Indian officials weigh policy responses to strengthen safety nets and provide migrants long-term job opportunities.

Amid the many challenges, there may be opportunities, said Troyer Moore. Migrants often have useful skills from their urban work experience, which could be harnessed for rural development or small-business entrepreneurship. Research findings about the disproportionate hardships faced by women and lower-caste members could also provide impetus for larger-scale social change.

COVID-19 is a major juncture, said Troyer Moore. The hard work will not wrap up when the pandemic ends. Getting started with the right type of data collection now is going to help push policy in the right direction.

The India project fits into EGC and the MacMillan Centers broader research agenda on how COVID-19 is affecting the global poor, particularly women and children, and how developing countries can design effective policies to support poor communities during and after COVID-19. The research on Indias migrant workers, for instance, could offer lessons to help governments prepare for the impacts of climate change, which is expected to create millions of migrants.

For Chang, his summer internship convinced him about the power and potential of data to create positive change in the world.

Data science demystifies the unknown, he said. In its raw form, data is just waiting for someone to mold, filter, and channel it into something useful.

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How Yale economists are informing India's COVID-19 response - Yale News

A look at where we started and how far weve come following the unprecedented mobilization of the health and research enterprise against a devastating pandemic.

2020 began on an ominous note, as California and the rest of the United States watched from afar while a mysterious respiratory illness made its way through China. Individuals video-conferencing from quarantine, community shutdowns and high-tech contact tracing to find the virus before it could infect someone else: Surely, it would somehow be contained before it happened here?

Yet just a few short months later, the virus overtookthe United States, prompting major changes to day-to-day life and causing an unprecedented effort by individuals and institutions to help the sick and mitigate its spread. University of California campuses pivoted to deliver remote instruction to students; across the system the health and research enterprise which beganpreparing in the earliest days immediately took on new projects to try and find a difference-maker.

The good news is, with 2020 coming to a close, relief seems in sight. Multiple vaccines are in development, and distribution is underway. Federal and state governments are drawing up plans to vaccinate hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. by summer. Its an unprecedented achievement for science, medical research and global cooperation, given vaccines usually take years or decades to produce.

The efforts and research of UC campuses and health centers have played a major role in protecting California and exploring viable solutions to stopping the pandemic. Heres a look at where we started and how far weve come with the coronavirus.

UC San Franciscohelped to provide COVID-19 testing in the Mission District in April. It is now collaborating to expand testing in several San Francisco neighborhoods.

Credit: Barbara Ries

Today, you can go online and schedule a COVID-19 test with your health care provider, or find free options for COVID-19 testing through local government. But in the earliest days of the pandemic, testing was in extremely short supply.

University of California Health (UCH) began filling that gap in early March, as its CLIA-certified labs developed their own in-house testing for the coronavirus, making UCH one of the first health systems in the country to do so. As the fourth-largest health delivery system in California serving a large number of low-income patients, University of California Healths capability was significant. In April, UCSF Health announced it was offering free COVID-19 test analysis and results to the public health departments of all 58 California counties.

At the campuses, many researchers applied their expertise to improving testing technologies. 2020 Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna of UC Berkeley spearheaded a pop-up diagnostics lab at the Innovative Genomics Institute for the campus and members of the surrounding community, including first responders and unhoused people who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.

When the pandemic hit, we asked ourselves, What do we as scientists do to address the COVID-19 health emergency? Doudna said in June. That effort has focused on testing. We set up a clinical laboratory, and we are now getting asymptomatic saliva testing going for the UC Berkeley campus.

The IGI shared its blueprints for starting a pop-up testing lab and methods for surveillance testing in a large campus environment so that similar institutions could learn from their efforts.

In October, scientists at UCLA Health received emergency FDA authorization to begin using a new method of COVID-19 detection utilizingsequencing technology called SwabSeq. The method is capable of testing thousands of samples for coronavirus at the same time, producing accurate, individual results in 12 to 24 hours. The underlying technology of SwabSeq can be applied to any type of sample collection, such as a nasopharyngeal, oropharyngeal or saliva test.

"This is a technological breakthrough that will dramatically increase the amount of COVID-19 testing while reducing the wait time for results and costs," says Dr. John Mazziotta, vice chancellor for UCLA Health Sciences and CEO of UCLA Health.

Six employees in the costume and scene shops of UC Riversides Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production sat behind sewing machines, stitching together face masks for their colleagues. Their goal was to make at least 750 masks, which are free for essential UC Riverside employees as a form of supplemental protection.

Credit: Barbara Ries

Personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies were at a premium during the first wave. PPE is now a household name and production has dramatically improved. But in the early days, health care workers were making their own masks, or going on social media to call for donations.

Campuses across the system responded by producing PPE themselves and running donation drives. UC Riverside theater employees sewed face masks for their essential worker colleagues. UC med students, with clinical training paused, reached out to the public and ran donation drives.

Labs across the system also used their technologies to produce PPE: UC Santa Barbara began using 3-D printing to create face shields, while UC San Diego used 3-D printing to retrofit and build ventilators, as did UC Irvines School of Medicine.

A team of scientists from UC San Diego (including Nobel laureate Mario Molina) collaborated remotely with colleagues at Caltech and Texas A&M to analyze the transmission pathways of COVID-19. Their study confirmed that face coverings determine the pandemics trends and significantly reduce the number of infections.

Credit: Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications

So much was unknown in the beginning, including how long the SARS-CoV-2 virus could live, and where.

An important early study on the coronavirus and its stability and viability in the air and on surfaces was done by UCLA, noting that the virus could be detected in aerosols (particles suspended in the air) for three hours; up to four hours on copper; up to 24 hours on cardboard; and for up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel.

While surfaces are no longer believed to be a primary source of transmission, the finding on aerosols was particularly important as an early indicator that tiny particles suspended in air, not necessarily produced by coughing or sneezing, could carry the virus, adding to a growing consensus that prevention required good air ventilation and face coverings.

As early as April, UC Davis asked how important is speech in transmitting the coronavirus? which turned out to be a very important question as further research identified airborne transmission as perhaps the most important vector. UC Davis aerosol scientists suggested that normal speech by individuals who are asymptomatic but infected with coronavirus may produce enough aerosolized particles to transmit the infection. These questions built off pre-pandemic research that found that the louder one speaks, the more aerosolized particles are emitted. And some individuals for reasons that are still not clear emit up to 10 times as many aerosolized particles as others, making them potential virus superspreaders.

Later studies, including one by UC San Diego, confirmed this type of airborne transmission is the dominant route for spreading COVID-19, making masks and face coverings a necessary containment strategy.

UC researchers also began developing a host of new technologies to eliminate the virus on surfaces and disinfect the air inside buildings. Campuses developed novel approaches for killing the virus, with UC Santa Barbara developing a technique using LEDs; UC Irvine focusing on Blu-Ray technologies; and UCLA developing methods using atmospheric plasma sprays.

De Kai has created a simulation to show how the transmission of COVID-19 can be slowed by mask wearing. Click the image above to try out the simulator yourself.

Credit: University of California

Remember when we wondered if, and when, weshould even touch our mail? Weve come a long way in our public health guidance. UC science has explained why masks work; which types of masks work best; and how many people in a population need to mask up to stop the virus from spreading (80-90 percent of the population, according to computer science and engineering professor De Kai at UC Berkeleys International Computer Science Institute). UCSF has also produced research suggesting wearing a mask or face covering could make you less likely to get seriously ill if you do get infected.

UC scientists also provided important health guidance on the necessity of social distancing and other measures the public can take. UCSFs Dr. Bob Wachter emerged as an important voice on Twitter with his UCSF COVID Chronicles and appeared everywhere from NPR affiliates to On Air with Ryan Seacrest to disseminate information about the virus, and UCLAs Anne Rimoin providing advice to viewers on Good Morning America and other news shows, to name just two.

UC San Diego researchers and entrepreneurs developed and led the pilot program for CA Notify, an app that helps reduce the spread of the virus by providing users with a private and anonymous means of sharing information about possible exposures to COVID-19. If exposed, an alert will pop up on your phone to empower you with information to keep your friends, family and community safe. The app is now available to everyone in California, and more than 6 million people have signed up to use it. Until a vaccine has been administered to people across the United States, containment strategies will be vital to saving more lives.

Searching the massive FDA drug database for potential matches after the first protein targets were found.

A team located at UC San Franciscos Quantitative Biosciences Institute, QB3, worked around the clock to discover how the coronavirus attacks cells in the hopes of identifying proper therapeutics. But instead of trying to create new drugs based on this information, they first looked to see if there were drugs already available that could fight the coronavirus. In March alone they identified 27 FDA-approved drugs in the hopes of narrowing and speeding up the search.

Also in March, UC Irvine Health and UC San Diego Health launched clinical trials of the antiviral drug remdesivir, originally developed to treat Ebola, which to date is one of the few drugs approved by the FDA for use treating COVID-19. UCLA Health announced its involvement in a National Institutes of Health clinical trial of the same drug in April.

In August, UCSF announced a new possible form of treatment for, and prevention of, COVID-19. Led by UCSF graduate student Michael Schoof, a team of researchers engineered a completely synthetic, production-ready molecule that straitjackets the crucial SARS-CoV-2 machinery that allows the virus to infect cells. In an aerosol formulation they tested, dubbed AeroNabs by the researchers, these molecules could be self-administered with a nasal spray or inhaler.

The research team has been in active discussions with commercial partners to ramp up manufacturing and clinical testing of AeroNabs. If these tests are successful, the scientists aim to make AeroNabs widely available as an inexpensive medication to prevent and treat COVID-19.

Tackling long-haul COVID-19: Mark Avdalovic, director of UC Davis Healths Post-COVID-19 Clinic, and Namita Sood, pulmonologist.

Credit: Wayne Tilcock/UC Davis Health

We thought it was just a respiratory virus. We were wrong noted a UCSF news article that explored the emerging science about how COVID-19 affects cells throughout the body, unlike a mere cold or flu. UC scientists documented the loss of smell and taste accompanying infection (and how people misjudge their own loss of smell and taste, a phenomenon noted by UC Merced); other UC researchers pointed to mysterious swelling in childrens toes.

The puzzle of who gets seriously ill, who doesnt, and why some peoples symptoms persist for months on end remains to be solved. The phenomenon of long-haul COVID-19 patients led UC Davis to found a Post-COVID-19 Clinic. Complications from the illness, particularly in terms of how it affects the heart, are the subject of ongoing research across the UC system.

A medically trained UC Irvine volunteer collects a blood sample at one of 11 drive-thru antibody testing sites in Orange County.

Credit: Carlos Puma/UC Irvine Health

As scientists sought a vaccine to protect against COVID-19, they focused their attention on antibodies, which can help the body fight off re-infection.

The antibody science of COVID-19, like most aspects related to the illness, has evolved rapidly and grown in sophistication since the pandemics early days. In mid-April, UC San Diego launched a pair of serological tests to look for novel coronavirus antibodies evidence that someone has been infected by the coronavirus, even if they never experienced symptoms. A new test, developed by UC Santa Cruz, can provide complete quantitative results in less than 20 minutes.

The research is still developing about how much protection antibodies provide, and for how long, but it is clear that they have utility for those in the midst of fighting the illness. Across the system campuses have encouraged survivors of COVID-19 including Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson to donate plasma so it can be used to help seriously ill patients recover. A clinical trial with convalescent plasma at UCLA showed some success in getting patients off ventilators and breathing on their own.

A shot of a shot: One of the first vaccinations of a frontline worker at UCSF.

Credit: Susan Merrell

Perhaps no scientific pursuit has seen the focused intensity that has gone into developing a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Now, in defiance of projections that it might take years,two have been approved for use in the United States, having already gone through successful clinical trials.

UCH has participated in all of the major vaccine trials, with its staff and faculty rolling up their sleeves for these experimental therapies.

Kristen Choi, a UCLA assistant professor of nursing who participated in Pfizers vaccine trial, said that physicians and other health care professionals now need to help their patients have trust in the vaccine and its safety.

They will need to explain that fatigue, headache, chills, muscle pain, and fever are normal, reactogenic immune responses and a sign that the vaccine is working, despite the unfortunate similarities with the diseases symptoms.

While it cannot be known whether or not she received the vaccine or a placebo, her experience with flu-shot like side effects is an important cautionary tale for the next, long-awaited step of COVID-19 public health outreach: what to expect when you receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

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How UC fought COVID-19 in 2020 - University of California

With expertise ranging from computational geometry to cyber-physical systems, four new faculty members recently joined computer science. A fifth new faculty member is expected to join us early in 2021.

Avah Banerjee, assistant professor, studies combinatorics and graphs, computational geometry, online algorithms, and quantum computation. Banerjee earned Ph.D. and masters degree in computer science from George Mason University as well as a bachelors degree of technology with honors in electrical engineering. Before joining S&T, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Louisiana State Universitys Center for Computation and Technology.

Gerry W. Howser, associate teaching professor, earned a masters degree and a doctorate in computer science as well as a bachelors degree in physics from Missouri S&T. A former visiting assistant professor at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Howser says his background in physics and computer science give him a unique perspective in analyzing cyber-physical security systems.

Tony T. Luo, associate professor, studies the Internet of Things, machine learning and cybersecurity. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the National University of Singapore. Luo is a former program lead and research scientist with A*STAR in Singapore.

Ardhendu Tripathy, assistant professor, studies information and coding theory, machine learning, and signal processing. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Iowa State University and a bachelor of technology degree in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

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Missouri S&T News and Events New faculty in computer science - Missouri S&T News and Research