EPICENTER provides those in multidisciplinary research with resources to build, simulate, and analyze mathematical models to determine the spread of phenomena in complex networks.

A main goal of EPICENTER is to provide policy makers with real-time, flexible modeling tools to curtail epidemiological outbreaks, whether such an outbreak occurs in humans, animals, plants, or computers. Given the heightened attention to protecting the United States from threats, such modeling may well be essential to mitigating the sociological and economic effects of a potentially out-of-control epidemic, effects such as human death, herd disposal, crop destruction, or the inability to communicate over the Internet. Whether the threat is famine, war, terrorism, or epidemic disease, the goal of EPICENTER researchers is to design efficient, realistic simulations for real-time implementation using models, algorithms, and software for network simulation and topology analysis. The lynch pin of EPICENTER is its multidisciplinary approach to complex networks; for example, faculty hail from agriculture, veterinary science, biology, medicine, social sciences, and engineering. Additionally, EPICENTER research is enhanced by the contributions of dedicated student researchers. Highlights of several key projects that together demonstrate the versatility of this approach follow.

This research develops optimized guidelines for administrators to establish procedures and allocate resources to help mitigate the effects of the spread of infectious diseases in rural regions whether by malicious attack or natural causes. Dedicated projects assess the particular contact network of rural regions and develop a simulation tool with multiple compartments running on the contact network.