Seminar: Thesis presentation: Risk Minimization for Spreading Processes over Networks via Surveillance Scheduling and Sparse Control, 28th September, 4p

When: Tuesday 28th of September, 4pm AEST

Where: This seminar will be presented online via Zoom, RSVP here.

Speaker: Vera Somers

Title: Thesis presentation: Risk Minimization for Spreading Processes over Networks via Surveillance Scheduling and Sparse Control

Abstract:
Epidemics, computer viruses and bushfires can all be thought of as spreading processes in which an initial localized outbreak spreads rapidly to neighbouring nodes and throughout a network. The real-world risks associated with these events have sparked significant research into methods for modelling, prediction and control. In this seminar, we propose an optimization framework that combines surveillance schedules and sparse control to bound the risk of spreading processes. Here, risk is considered the product of the probability of an outbreak and the impact of that outbreak, and we can bound or minimize the risk by resource allocation and persistent monitoring schedules. The presented framework utilizes the properties of positive systems and convex optimization, in particular exponential cone programming, to provide scalable algorithms. We demonstrate how the method can incorporate different parameters and scenarios such as a vaccination strategy for epidemics and the effect of vegetation and weather for bushfires.

Bio:
Vera Somers is a final stage PhD candidate at the ACFR, supervised by Ian Manchester, and submitted her thesis in August 2021. She received the BSc and MSc degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands and she was a Research Assistant with the Humans and Autonomy Lab at Duke University, USA. Her research interests include control, simulation and optimization of complex networks and spreading processes.