AI can help tackle the COVID-19 outbreak – these FCAI projects focus on the new coronavirus

Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash

Many FCAI research projects are now focusing on the coronavirus epidemic.

AI and machine learning methods can help tackle the coronavirus epidemic in many ways. As discussed in a recent workshop by the ELLIS Society (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems), AI and machine learning methods can help in, for instance, outbreak prediction, tracking and epidemiological modelling, drug development, and healthcare management.

Many FCAI research projects are now focusing on the coronavirus epidemic. Researchers at FCAI have started – or are about to start – several research projects that aim to mitigate the health, societal, and economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Aalto University professors Simo Särkkä, Aki Vehtari, Arno Solin and Samuel Kaski are working in a project in which a panel of experts gauges different model approaches and available data to make reliable predictions on the spreading dynamics of COVID-19 in Finland. The project also dives into the social, economic, and healthcare aspects of the new coronavirus by analyzing the effects of government interventions and mobility of people.

Professor Jukka Corander from the University of Helsinki leads a project in which the researchers’ aim is to determine the role of bacterial and fungal pathogens for the mortality of COVID-19 patients. This is a cohort study, and its participants live in Northern Italy.

Professors Sasu Tarkoma and Pan Hui from the University of Helsinki are the principal investigators for another project. This project aims to design, validate, and deploy algorithmic methods for characterizing human mobility and motion in public and private spaces and vehicles for mitigating the transmission of diseases, COVID-19 in particular.