For Sabrina Corsetti, the pandemic presents an interesting problem—a data problem, that is. Her efforts to model the pandemic’s spread using a machine learning algorithm has now been included in those being aggregated for the CDC’s weekly projections.Sabrina Corsetti, 2020 Goldwater Scholar, developed a data model that leverages machine learning to predict COVID-19 cases and deaths for the United States up to 40 days in advance.

Corsetti, a senior majoring in physics and mathematics, had her previous research halted when the University of Michigan suspended in-person classes and labs back in March. Thomas Schwarz, one of Corsetti’s research professors, happened to be modeling the pandemic’s data and included her in the project.

Under Corsetti’s direction, the small analysis has developed into a full, data-driven research project. Corsetti says that, while she was originally interested in the pandemic due to the news, it was the amount of “unknowns” surrounding the data that inspired her to dive deeper.

Story continued in this U-M News article.

More Information:

Thomas Schwarz