Speeding Up Simulations of Indoor Disease Spread for Better Tracking

Global outbreak tracking in real-time.

A Concordia team has created a faster, more accurate way to model how pathogens disperse indoors, offering a tool to help contain outbreaks of diseases like COVID-19.

Their disease tracking system combines camera and sensor tracking of infected individuals with airflow simulations to assess infection risks in real time, and even optimize ventilation.

Unlike earlier methods, which captured only brief bursts of airborne spread, the new model can simulate pathogen dispersion for extended periods and across complex spaces like hospitals. It also runs efficiently on a standard laptop, producing one second of simulated spread in just 3.8 seconds.

“A building equipped with sensors allows us to follow the infected people and estimate or track who has been in contact with that person.”

— Fariborz Haghighat, PhD

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