In-person college classes require students, faculty, and staff to congregate together in indoor spaces creating a higher risk for possible COVID-19 infection. Small residential colleges such as the five Claremont Colleges (5Cs), where a majority of the students live on campus, present a relatively closed campus environment, curtailing students’ interactions with their greater community. However, the close knit quarters in which students live may contribute to a rise in infections that may ultimately reach other more vulnerable populations on the campuses such as faculty and staff.
In this talk, we present a model of COVID-19 spread consisting of several interconnected modified SEIR differential equations to investigate the dynamics between different populations at the 5Cs and the influence of mitigation techniques such as students adhering to health protocols and contact tracing. We then present an app which allows the user to vary parameters in our model, providing intuition and guidance on campus openings under a range of conditions.
Dr. Christina Edholm is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Scripps College. She is an applied mathematician who focuses on mathematical biological questions and analysis. Two main areas of my research are invasive species control and epidemiological modeling.
Dr. Maryann Hohn is a Postdoctoral Scholar of Mathematics at Pomona College. She enjoys creating mathematical models of biological systems including the microbiome, RNA interactions, and population dynamics.
Dr. Ami Radunskaya is a Professor of Mathematics at Pomona College. Her research is in dynamical systems applied to real-world problems. Recently she has worked on mathematical models of cancer-immune interactions, the spread of infections, the opioid epidemic, and drug delivery to the brain.
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