Mathematical and Computational Initiatives from the University of Buenos Aires to Contribute to Decision-Making in the Context of COVID-19 in Argentina
REVIEW
- Mehrnoosh Arrar IC - CONICET
- Laouen Belloli ICC - CONICET
- Ana Bianco IC - CONICET
- Leonardo Boechi IC - CONICET
- Rodrigo Castro ICC
- Guillermo Durán CONICET - UBA
- Roberto Etchenique DQIAyQF - INQUIMAE - FCEyN - UBA
- Natalia Brenda Fernandez IB3 - UBA
- Luciana Ferrer ICC - CONICET
- Diego Garbervetsky ICC - CONICET
- Rodrigo Goldsmit FCEyN - UBA
- Carolina Grillo Vidal FCEyN - UBA
- Juan E. Kamienkowski ICC - CONICET
- Pablo Laciana ICC - CONICET
- Esteban Lanzarotti ICC - CONICET
- Mario Lozano UNQ
- Rodrigo Maidana UNLP
- Mauricio Mendiluce FCEyN - UBA
- Sol Minoldo UNC
- Ezequiel Pecker-Marcosig ICC - CONICET
- Leonardo Pepino ICC - CONICET
- Armando Ezequiel Puerta ICC - CONICET
- Rodrigo Quiroga UNC
- Guillermo Solovey CONICET - UBA
- Marina Valdora IC - CONICET
- Mariano Zapatero ICC - CONICET
Abstract
With the arrival of the pandemic in Argentina in March 2020, a working group of scientists from two institutes belonging to the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires and CONICET, together with colleagues from different academic institutions in the country, decided to put forth our experience and knowledge in data science and associated disciplines, towards helping with decision-making in the context of COVID-19. Data analysis within Argentina and other countries, scenario simulation, as well as rapid response projects- mainly in the province of Buenos Aires- were all within the scope of our aim. This review article outlines some of the activities carried out by our team throughout these pandemic months.
Author Biographies
Mehrnoosh Arrar is a research scientist at the Instituto de Cálculo of the University of Buenos Aires. She obtained her PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of California San Diego and her Bachelors in Chemistry from the University of Florida.
Laouen Belloli is a graduate student in Computer Science from the University of Buenos Aires and he is currently finishing his second year as a Ph.D. student at the Laboratorio de Inteligencia Artificial (LIAA) of the University of Buenos Aires under the supervision of Ph.D. Diego fernández Slezak. Laouen research mainly focuses on computational psychiatry.
Ana M. Bianco holds a PhD and a degree in Mathematics from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. She is full professor at the Instituto de Cálculo and independent researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas of Argentina. Her reserach interests are in Mathematical Statistics, mainly focused on Robust Statistics.
Leonardo Boechi received his PhD at the University of Buenos Aires, and completed his postdoctorates at the University of California San Diego, where he was awarded by the Pew Foundation and by the Bunge & Born foundation. He has a permanent position at the Instituto de Calculo of the University of Buenos Aires. His principal area of interest involves statistical methods applied to biological systems.
Rodrigo Castro holds a degree and a PhD in Engineering from the National University of Rosario. He is a researcher in the UBA-CONICET Institute of Computer Science, where he heads the Simulation Laboratory, and a professor in the Computer Science Department, School of Exact and Natural Sciences, University of Buenos Aires. He is a modeling and simulation consultant for a variety of public and private organizations in Argentina, USA and Europe.
Guillermo Durán holds a PhD in computer science and a degree in mathematics from the University of Buenos Aires. He is head of the Instituto de Cálculo, associate professor at the University of Buenos Aires, adjunct professor at the University of Chile, and Senior Investigator at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina. He is an operations research consultant for a variety of public and private organizations in Chile and Argentina.
Roberto Etchenique obtained his degree in Chemistry (1994) and his PhD in Inorganic, Analytical and Physical Chemistry (1998) from the School of Exact and Natural Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires (FCEN-UBA), Argentina. Currently, he is Senior Investigator of CONICET, Head of the Molecular Devices Lab at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of Materials, Environment and Energy (INQUIMAE), CONICET and Full Professor at the Inorganic, Analytical and Physical Chemistry Department, FCEN-UBA.
Natalia Brenda Fernández holds a PhD in biological science and a degree in biology from the the University of Buenos Aires. She is a postdoctoral fellow at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina. She carries out her research at the Instituto de Biociencias, Biotecnología y Biología Traslacional (iB3) at the University of Buenos Aires.
Luciana Ferrer is a researcher at the Computer Science Institute (ICC, for its acronym in Spanish), affiliated to the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Argentina. Luciana received her Ph.D. degree in Electronic Engineering from Stanford University, USA, in 2009, and her Electronic Engineering degree from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2001. Her primary research focus is machine learning applied to speech processing tasks.
Diego Garbervetsky is an Associated Professor in the University of Buenos Aires and Deputy director of the Institute of Research in Computer Science (ICC/CONICET). His research focuses on automatic program analysis techniques aimed at program understanding, verification and validation. He regularly publishes and participes in program committees on the main conferences in Software Engineering. He is highly interested in technology transfer and has been participating in several collaboration projects with the software industry. Since the beginning of the covid pandemic he was devoting his time in forming interdisciplinary groups that worked intensively in computational and mathematical models aiming at assisting policy makers with evidence based on data and analytics.
Rodrigo Goldsmit is a med student from the University of Buenos Aires. He is a teaching assistant in Pharmacology at the University of Buenos Aires. He was one of the coordinators of the CETEC-U FCEyN during 2020.
Carolina Grillo Vidal is a PhD student in the University of Buenos Aires, working at the Geochronology and Isotopic Geology Institute and have a doctoral scholarship of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina. Is coordinate the Covid Prevention Center in the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of UBA.
Juan E. Kamienkowski holds a PhD and a degree in physics from the University of Buenos Aires. He is head of the Maestría en Data Mining (Universidad de Buenos Aires), and researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) from Argentina. He is a member of the Laboratorio de Inteligencia Artificial Aplicada (Instituto de Ciencias de la Computación, Universidad de Buenos Aires).
Pablo Laciana is a senior software developer. He has a degree in Computer Science from the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. He currently works as a Technical Assistant at the UBA-CONICET Institute of Computer Science.
Esteban Lanzarotti holds a PhD in Biochemestry from the University of Buenos Aires and a degree in Computer Science.
Mario E. Lozano holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the National University of La Plata. Titular Professor in Biochemistry, National University of Quilmes (UNQ). Assistant Researcher, CONICET. Formerly: General Director of the National University Council for Argentina (CIN, 2017-2020). Rector of UNQ (2012-2016), Vice-Rector of UNQ (2008-2012); Dean of Department of Science and Technology, UNQ (2004-2008); General Secretary of UNQ, (2003-2004); Secretary of Student Affairs, Faculty of Exact Sciences of the National University of La Plata (1986-1988); Faculty and University Adviser, National University of La Plata, 1990-1994.
Rodrigo Maidana is pursuing a degree in Economics at the National University of La Plata. Currently is an independent analyst and consultant of COVID-19.
Mauricio Mendiluce has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Buenos Aires. He is a PhD student in Mathematical Sciences at the Instituto de Investigaciones Matemáticas Luis A. Santaló (IMAS) belonging to the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina (CONICET).
Sol Minoldo holds a PhD in social sciences from the University of Buenos Aires and a degree in sociology. She is researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas of Argentina.
Ezequiel Pecker-Marcosig holds a PhD in Engineering and a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Since 2015, he has been a Head Teaching Assistant with the Electronics Department (FI-UBA). He is a postdoctoral fellow with the Discrete Event Simulation Lab at the UBA-CONICET Institute of Computer Science (ICC).
Leonardo Pepino is pursuing a PhD in computer science at University of Buenos Aires and holds a degree in Acoustic engineering from the University of Tres de Febrero. He is a member of the speech processing group of the Applied Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, which is part of the Instituto de Ciencias de la Computación. His main interests are in deep learning and its applications to acoustic signal processing.
Armando Ezequiel Puerta is an advanced Computer Science student at the University of Buenos Aires. He is currently doing his Master’s thesis at the Discrete Event Simulation Laboratory under the direction of Rodrigo Castro.
Rodrigo Quiroga holds a PhD in Molecular Biology and a degree in biochemistry from the University of Córdoba. He is an associate professor at the University of Córdoba in the School of Chemical Sciences, Department of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, and an assistant researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas in Argentina.
Guillermo Solovey is a professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientıficas y Técnicas de Argentina. His research ranges different topics in quantitative cognitive science. He applies online experiments, computational and statistical models to understand human decision making. In particular, how people use evidence in their environment to update their beliefs and judge the veracity of information.
Marina Valdora holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of Buenos Aires. She is a professor at the University of Buenos Aires in the area of statistics and a researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina.
Mariano Zapatero is a senior software architect and developer. He is a consultant for several data-centric projects in varied institutions both in industry and academia. He is also the lead technical adviser and applications architect for the Discrete Event Simulation Lab, UBA-CONICET Institute of Computer Science.
