Welcome
IDDconf 2019 was the third instalment of a new meeting series focussing on innovative research in infectious disease dynamics.
This meeting is an opportunity for infectious disease modellers to share new ideas, in-progress research, and build an open and collaborative network of scientists.
The IDDconf 2019 programme is now available!
Concurrent updates on this website and on twitter @IDDconf.
More details
- Date
- Tuesday 3rd September — Thursday 5th September 2019
- Location
- Ambleside Campus (University of Cumbria), Ambleside, Cumbria, UK
- Start time
- (9am if attending workshops) 12:30pm Tuesday
- End time
- 2:30pm Thursday
- Reception
- Tuesday 6—7.30pm
- Country Walk
- Wednesday 2—6pm
- 2.5 days of interaction within the infectious disease modelling community
- High presentation ratio amongst participants (last year 42%)
- New and developing research encouraged
- Afternoon of walking in beautiful Lake District countryside (optional)
- Optional workshop sessions on day 1
Topics include any aspects of infectious disease dynamics: from methodological to applied modelling of emerging, epidemic and endemic infectious diseases, including epidemiology, phylodynamics, evolutionary biology and ecology. For examples of the type of work presented in previous years, see our 2018 and 2017 programmes.
We are aiming for the meeting to be as informal and family-friendly as possible. Please see the family section for more information.
Format: single-stream of short talks (~15 mins) by most attendees (numbers permitting), with a small poster session during evening reception.
Inclusions in Standard Conference Ticket
- 2 nights single en-suite accommodation at University of Cumbria halls
- Lunches, coffee, and snacks
- Nibbles, wine, and soft drinks at evening reception
- Subsidised childcare for those bringing small children
Exclusions
- Transport to Ambleside
- Alcohol (except at reception)
- Breakfast*
- Dinner
Workshops
- 2 parallel morning workshops on inference methods Tuesday 9am – 12.30pm
- Workshop + Conference ticket includes Monday night accommodation
- See Workshops for more details
Cost
-
Standard Conference ticket: £190
- 12.30pm Tuesday 3rd — 2.30pm Thursday 5th September
-
Without accommodation: £130
- 12.30pm Tuesday 3rd — 2.30pm Thursday 5th September
-
Workshop + Conference ticket: £250
- Check in to accommodation evening Monday 2nd September
- 9am Tuesday 3rd — 2.30pm Thursday 5th September
Abstracts for talks and posters will be solicited 2nd—12th August 2019. Decisions will be made in a transparent manner, without reference to topic or institution. IDDconf 2019 offers a presentation mentoring scheme.
We are committed to making IDDconf a relaxed and safe experience for everyone, free from bullying or harassment of any nature. We expect all participants to act in a professional and responsible manner. If you experience or witness anything of concern, please contact one of the meeting organisers.
*There are cafes and supermarkets in Ambleside, or a supermarket at Windermere train station, that we recommend delegates visit to get breakfast. The accommodation has kitchen facilities including kettle, toaster, crockery and fridges.
IDDconf 2019 Workshops
Tuesday 3rd
| Workshop 1 ABC Methods Lead: TJ McKinley The Beehive |
Workshop 2 Likelihood-based Inference Lead: Chris Jewell LD1.01 Langdale Building |
|
|---|---|---|
| Time | Content | Content |
| 08:45-09:00 | Set up | Set up |
| 09:00-10:30 | Workshop sessions | Workshop sessions |
| 10:30-11:00 | Coffee + snack | Coffee + snack |
| 11:00-12:30 | Workshop sessions | Workshop sessions |
IDDconf 2019: A Conference of Infectious Disease Dynamics
Tuesday 3rd
| Time | Presenter | Title | Chair |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12.30-1.20 | Lunch and Registration | ||
| 1.20-1.30 | Opening Remarks | ||
| 13:30 | Helena Stage | Multi-scale superinfection models in evolutionary epidemiology | Yoon Choi |
| 13:45 | Benjamin Singer | Modelling the effects of travel and cross-immunity on epidemic and pandemic risk | |
| 14:00 | Venetia Karamitsou | Modelling the evolution of influenza across scales | |
| 14:15 | Amanda Minter | Epidemiology of first influenza infections and antibody titre characteristics in a childhood cohort | |
| 14:30 | Naomi Waterlow | Modelling of viral-viral competition: practical identifiability when using surveillance data | |
| 14:45 | Jonathan Read | The potential for international dissemination of emerging viral pathogens | |
| 15:00-15:30 | Coffee | ||
| 15:30 | Megan O'Driscoll | Estimating temporal trends in dengue transmission intensity from surveillance data | Mario Recker |
| 15:45 | Jose Lourenco | Applications of the mosquito-borne viral suitability index P. | |
| 16:00 | Katy Gaythorpe | Yellow fever in a changing climate: the effect on burden in Africa | |
| 16:15 | Maryam Aliee | A stochastic model to link case reporting and elimination of transmission for sleeping sickness | |
| 16:30 | Antoine Barreaux | Integrating vector ecology into disease transmission models: the unusual case of the live-bearing tsetse fly | |
| 16:45-17:00 | Comfort Break | ||
| 17:00 | Ching-I Huang | Simulation modelling to assess the risks and rewards of stopping interventions against sleeping sickness | Graham Medley |
| 17:15 | Emma Southall | Detecting signals of disease elimination in line-list data | |
| 17:30 | Robert Hardwick | The 'breakpoint' of soil-transmitted helminthiasis with infected human migration | |
| 17:45 | Benjamin Miller | Modelling the effect of targeted screening campaigns for sleeping sickness with an age and gender structured model | |
| 18:00-19:30 | Reception and Poster Session |
Wednesday 4th
| Time | Presenter | Title | Chair |
|---|---|---|---|
| 07:15-08:15 | Optional Yoga session with Alicia Rosello | ||
| 9:00 | Amy Dighe | The dynamics of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) transmission in dromedary camel populations | Juliet Pulliam |
| 9:15 | Rowland Kao | The Tuberculosis Modelling Initiative - insights from a national scale, individual based model incorporating cattle and badger groups. | |
| 9:30 | Elaine Ferguson | Modelling the impact of mass vaccination on canine rabies persistence | |
| 9:45 | Olivier Restif | The Ghost in the Flying Machine: inferring henipavirus dynamics in bats from serological data | |
| 10:00 | Anne-Sophie Ruget | Temporal and multispecies dimensions of Scottish livestock network | |
| 10:15 | Constanze Ciavarella | Deriving fine-scale models of human mobility from aggregated origin-destination flow data | |
| 10:30-11:00 | Coffee | ||
| 11:00 | Ellen Brooks Pollock | Post-exposure vaccination to control Hepatitis A outbreaks: a modelling evaluation using data from the United Kingdom from 2011 to 2016 | Julia Gog |
| 11:15 | Tendai Mugwagwa | TB diagnostic testing using GeneXpert and whole-genome sequencing in England: a cost-effectiveness analysis using transmission-dynamic modelling | |
| 11:30 | Joseph Lemaitre | Achieving cholera elimination in Haiti through vaccination: A multimodelling study | |
| 11:45 | Chris Jewell | GEM: progress on a domain-specific modelling language for epidemics | |
| 12:00 | Alex Richards | Parameterising a TB model using data from a historical review | |
| 12:15 | Cameron Lack | A model of the early interactions between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and innate alveolar macrophages | |
| 12:30 | Jon Emery | Self-cure of latent tuberculosis infection: exploring implications for reactivation rates and population at risk using mathematical modelling | |
| 12:45-13:45 | Lunch | ||
| 13:50 | Assemble for walk | ||
| 14:00-17:30 | Optional Walk |
Thursday 5th
| Time | Presenter | Title | Chair |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 | Julia Gog | BBC pandemic - a look at the data | Rowland Kao |
| 9:15 | Chris Banks | Dynamics of disease on social media | |
| 9:30 | Kath O'Reilly | Unpacking how students learn mathematical modelling | |
| 9:45 | Joshua Ross | Elucidating user behaviours in a digital health surveillance system to correct prevalence estimates | |
| 10:00 | Damien Tully | Quantifying the transmission dynamics of Hepatitis C virus | |
| 10:15 | Gianluigi Rossi | Phylodynamic inference of transmission pathways for pathogens with low genetic diversity using the Kolmogorov Forward Equations | |
| 10:30-11.00 | Coffee | ||
| 11:00 | James Stimson | Estimating mortality attributable to resistant bloodstream infections | John Edmunds |
| 11:15 | Mirjam Laager | MCMC modelling of hospital acquired infections | |
| 11:30 | Rene Niehus | Quantifying the effects of antibiotics and probiotics on the microbiomes of neonates in an intensive care unit | |
| 11:45 | Nicholas Davies | Vaccines for managing antibiotic resistance in commensal bacteria | |
| 12:00 | Ottavia Prunas | Evaluating the impact of meningococcal vaccines with synthetic controls | |
| 12:15-13:00 | Lunch | ||
| 13:00 | Juliet Pulliam | Rubella in South Africa: what can we learn from age-structured serology data? | Daniela de Angelis |
| 13:15 | Lisa Koeppel | Joint epidemic and geostatistical approach for modelling disease outbreaks | |
| 13:30 | Adam Kucharski | Serosolver: an open source tool to infer epidemiological and immunological dynamics from serological data | |
| 13:45 | Yoon Choi | Mathematical modeling of pertussis resurgence in England and Wales | |
| 14:00 | Stephen Kissler | What would we do with near-perfect interpersonal contact data? | |
| 14:15 | Closing Remarks | ||
| 14:30 | Close |
Presentation Mentoring
IDDconf 2019 is introducing a presentation mentoring scheme. The aim is to allow speakers and attendees get the most out of presentations at IDDconf 2019, by generating constructive feedback ahead of the meeting.
Mentors will be able to volunteer at registration. For mentees, at the time of title submission (2nd-12th August) you will be able to opt in to join the scheme. We hope that mentors and mentees of all academic levels will opt in to the scheme.
The scheme will pair people from different institutions, who will then set up a 30-minute video call in the 10 days before IDDconf 2019. The mentee will give their presentation, and receive constructive feedback from the mentor.
Here are some resources to help in preparing talks:
-
“How to give a good scientific talk” (video by Julian Rayner)
This is a great place to start, and fits well with IDDconf format.
-
“How To Give a Good Talk” (Paper by Uri Alon)
Some more details here, splitting into considering preparation, delivery and handling questions afterwards.
-
“Ten simple rules for short and swift presentations” (paper by Christopher Lortie)
(Can skip the preamble.) The “rules” will help in preparing slides.
Family
IDDconf 2019 will provide bursaries for childcare during the conference. For those bringing a partner or other carer to look after a child, IDDconf will provide up to £60 for travel costs. For those bringing children and booking childcare, IDDconf will provide up to £200 for childcare costs.
Delegates cannot claim both bursaries. We encourage delegates to claim from a grant or funding agency if that is possible, to demonstrate to funders the need for these subsidies.
IDDconf has a limited budget, and childcare subsidies will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis until that limit is reached.
Previous attendees have used accredited babysitting services in Ambleside, for which we can provide details, but IDDconf and LSHTM accept no responsibility for those companies.
Children and babies are welcome at IDDconf, but caregivers should please make regular efforts not to interrupt speakers during sessions. Children are the responsibility of parents/caregivers while on campus and at IDDconf. Parents should note that that there will be alcoholic beverages at the poster session.
Children and babies are unfortunately not allowed in the University of Cumbria accommodation, and therefore outside accommodation must be sought for those bringing children. We suggest doing so as soon as your plans are made, as there is high demand in Ambleside. You are welcome to use the IDDconf parent mailing list to co-ordinate with other parents to find accommodation. At registration, please let us know if you would like to be added to the mailing list for people who may make childcare arrangements in Ambleside.
Workshops
IDDconf 2019 will offer 2 parallel training sessions, from 9am—12.30pm on Tuesday 3rd September. Delegates can arrive on Monday evening, and therefore the cost of the workshops includes 1 night accommodation plus the session.
The two parallel workshops are:
- Introduction to Approximate Bayesian Computation with TJ McKinley
- A practical introduction to likelihood-based inference with Chris Jewell
An introduction to Approximate Bayesian Computation for infectious disease models
- Workshop leader
- TJ McKinley
- Content outline
- In this workshop we will introduce the fundamental concepts that underlie Approximate Bayesian Computation methods, and discuss different ways to implement these ideas in practice. We will discuss key challenges such as choosing suitable summary statistics, defining distance metrics and deciding on suitable tolerance values. We will focus in particular on the use of Sequential Monte Carlo methods for inference, and will run through some practical examples for simple infectious disease models using R. We conclude with some discussions on challenges in more complex systems.
- Requirements
- Laptop with R installed (a list of packages will follow). Some basic statistical knowledge is desirable.
- Attendee limit
- 15-20
A practical introduction to likelihood-based inference
- Workshop leader
- Dr Chris Jewell
- Content outline
-
This workshop will cover the basics of
- Epidemic models as stochastic processes
- Likelihood functions for discrete and continuous time epidemic models for general heterogeneous populations (all other models being special cases thereof)
- Practical approaches to implementing likelihood-based inference for epidemic models in R and/or Python
- Discussion of censored/missing data considerations.
- Requirements
- Laptop with R and/or Python (with numpy/scipy) installed. Knowledge of R or Python to include linear algebra, optimisation routines (e.g. R optim(), or scipy.optimize()), and control flow (conditionals and loop constructs).
- Attendee limit
- 20
About
Our aim is to provide a fairly small (~100), community-driven conference, to improve interaction between modellers. We want a forum for modellers to present up to date work, stimulate discussion, and build collaborations. We are completely transparent about decision-making, and as many of these decisions as possible (such as talk selection) are done randomly. Last year we gave away leftover wine using a live random number selection in R!
IDDconf is organised by the Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Organisation is led by Roz Eggo, with Julia Gog (Cambridge), Ali Henderson, Graham Medley, and Jon Read (Lancaster) on the organisation team. The conference is run by LSHTM but there is no particular focus on LSHTM at the conference. CMMID provides sponsorship, and LSHTM event management capacity, both needed to make the conference happen!
IDDconf.org is the sister of IDDjobs.org, a community-driven site for finding and posting positions in infectious disease dynamics. Please add your jobs, and studentships there!
For any questions or queries regarding content, please email contact@iddconf.org, and in relation to logistics, organisation, or dietary requirements, events@lshtm.ac.uk (with IDDconf in the subject line).
