Rukiyah Walker, Monday, November 13, 2:30 – 4:30 pm, Keller 403
Title:  A Generalized Epidemiological Compartmental Model

Abstract: Epidemiological compartmental models are standard and important tools used to analyze the spread of infectious diseases. These models divide a population into distinct compartments, such as susceptible, infected, and recovered, based on their disease status. The behavior of the models can then be analyzed using methods from dynamical systems to better understand the spread of a particular disease. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the unpreparedness of societies worldwide in effectively responding to a devastating pandemic. Additionally, existing compartmental models often lack the capabilities to be applied to different diseases. Hence, the need to develop comprehensive models that can accurately predict the behavior of infectious diseases has become evident. In this work we propose a general compartmental model which has the potential to capture the behavior of specific diseases based on key parameters. We study the equilibria and stability of this model, as well as several submodels, by utilizing techniques from dynamical systems. Furthermore, we illustrate examples of varying fundamental parameters, such as transmission rates, latency periods, and more, with simulations for the different submodels that we will encounter.

https://math.hawaii.edu/home/depart/theses/MA_2023_Walker.pdf