{"637244":{"#nid":"637244","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Epidemics Focus, Virtual Format: QBioS Takes Annual \u201cHands-On Modeling Workshop\u201d Online","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThis summer, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/workshop2020.qbios.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EJoshua Weitz\u003C\/a\u003E, a professor with the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E who is also the founding director of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/qbios.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EQuantitative Biosciences Interdisciplinary Graduate Program\u003C\/a\u003E (QBioS), organized a \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/workshop2020.qbios.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u0026ldquo;Hands-On Modeling Virtual Workshop\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/a\u003E focusing on epidemics.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ecotheory.biosci.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EWeitz Group at Georgia Tech\u003C\/a\u003E has created various models and figures to help explain the spread and epidemiology of Covid-19. Weitz has frequently shared his findings with \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003Elocal and national media outlets\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis year marked the fourth annual \u0026ldquo;Quantitative Biosciences Hands-On Modeling Workshop\u0026rdquo;. Due to Covid-19, the summer 2020 event was held virtually. Focused on the basics of epidemic modeling, the workshop was joined by more than 50 online attendees from around the globe.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWeitz delivered two lectures on epidemic theory and the latest Covid-19 research. In addition, ten QBioS students, two post-doctoral scientists from the Weitz group (David Demory and Stephen Beckett), and one external post-doctoral scientist (Bradford Taylor) served as instructors for small group sessions, focusing on the hands-on experience of coding deterministic and stochastic models to predict the spread of epidemics.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe QBioS Ph.D. student organizers collected surveys following the event, which provided feedback on both the content and format of the workshop. Some examples:\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u0026ldquo;The flow of the workshop is great. Learning introductory concepts to start, the ability to apply some of them with hands-on, and then finishing with applications and extensions. Having many participants from many backgrounds adds a lot to the small group sessions as well.\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u0026ldquo;I thought it was a great workshop to get core concepts across. I think the online format was done as best as possible and appreciated the thoughtful instructors.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWeitz and Pablo Bravo, a second year QBioS Ph.D. student in Quantitative Biosciences, share thoughts on how they ran the virtual workshop \u0026mdash; along with ideas and advice for those looking to host similar online workshops:\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat were the biggest lessons learned from your summer workshop?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWeitz: \u003C\/strong\u003EThe survey results communicated two important lessons. First, positive\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nresponses to the\u0026nbsp;workshop\u0026nbsp;structure reinforce just how critical it is to contextualize modeling in terms of a key biological challenge. Providing a biological scaffold helps to focus student work and keep their interest and attention on the technical material. The second lesson is that there is an adaptation period to hands-on learning online. We intentionally spaced out the coding sessions with a mid-day break and most of the issues appeared in the morning as students and instructors adjusted to their group\u0026#39;s dynamic, including debugging code while in different locations, and indeed, countries.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBravo\u003C\/strong\u003E: One aspect that made the workshop possible was the participation of many members in different roles: coordinators, advertising, lecturers, instructors, IT support.\u0026nbsp; Planning and working early as a team were essential.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat were the biggest challenges you had to overcome?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBravo: \u003C\/strong\u003EThere were two main problems that we had to solve. First, we offered support for three programming languages (MATLAB, Python, R), and given the high number of registrations, the first year QBioS cohort couldn\u0026#39;t handle all of them. Members of the QBioS community, current and past members of the Weitz group stepped in and helped us in leading activity groups. It wouldn\u0026#39;t have been possible without them!\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAlso, debugging was an issue. Debugging scripts over video calls was extremely difficult. Attendees were not keen on screen-sharing their code at the beginning, but as they got to know each other, this stopped being an issue. Delay between the video and audio feed remained an issue throughout the whole workshop\u003Cstrong\u003E.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\u0026rsquo;s the one takeaway you want to stress to instructors looking to offer similar webinars and online workshops?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWeitz: \u003C\/strong\u003EOverall, we are optimistic about our ability to continue to develop and implement innovative teaching strategies in\u0026nbsp;QBioS \u0026mdash; but remain realistic that adjustment periods will be needed to foster an atmosphere conducive to small group learning when groups are dispersed.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBravo: \u003C\/strong\u003EI think the biggest factor in the success of the workshop is that it was centered around interactive activity sessions, in which five students and an instructor would go through the material and write the scripts together. This promoted both active learning and discussion between the attendees, and also allowed attendees to follow up with questions and comments to their respective instructors \u0026shy;\u0026shy;\u0026mdash; even days after the workshop finalized.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EHeld this summer in a virtual format, the fourth annual Quantitative Biosciences \u0026ldquo;Hands-On Modeling Workshop\u0026rdquo; focused on the basics of epidemics modeling. Joshua Weitz and Pablo Bravo share thoughts on how they ran the virtual workshop \u0026mdash; along with ideas and advice for those looking to host similar online events. \u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Held this summer in a virtual format, the fourth annual workshop focused on the basics of epidemics modeling. Joshua Weitz and Pablo Bravo share thoughts on how they ran the virtual workshop \u2014 along with ideas and advice for similar events."}],"uid":"34528","created_gmt":"2020-07-24 17:22:03","changed_gmt":"2022-05-26 17:09:36","author":"jhunt7","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2020-07-24T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2020-07-24T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"637245":{"id":"637245","type":"image","title":"Held this summer in a virtual format, the fourth annual workshop focused on the basics of epidemics modeling. Joshua Weitz and Pablo Bravo share thoughts on how they ran the virtual workshop \u2014 along with ideas and advice for similar events.","body":null,"created":"1595612841","gmt_created":"2020-07-24 17:47:21","changed":"1595612841","gmt_changed":"2020-07-24 17:47:21","alt":"","file":{"fid":"242414","name":"Modeling.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Modeling.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Modeling.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":158470,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Modeling.jpg?itok=kMXB0Bs9"}}},"media_ids":["637245"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/workshop2020.qbios.gatech.edu\/","title":"2020 \u0022Hands-On Virtual Modeling Workshop\u0022"},{"url":"https:\/\/ecotheory.biosci.gatech.edu\/","title":"The Weitz Group"},{"url":"https:\/\/cos.gatech.edu\/news\/georgia-tech-researchers-release-county-level-calculator-estimate-risk-covid-19-exposure-us","title":"Georgia Tech Researchers Release County-Level Calculator to Estimate Risk of Covid-19 Exposure at U.S. Events "}],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"42901","name":"Community"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"166882","name":"School of Biological Sciences"},{"id":"177810","name":"Quantitative Biosciences program"},{"id":"168667","name":"QBioS"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERenay San Miguel - Communications Officer - College of Sciences\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["renay.san@cos.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}