Assessing Impacts in Real Time UNCW researchers are exploring how the pandemic is affecting public health, communities, businesses and beyond. By Tricia Vance
While the COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges in higher education, it has also created a wealth of opportunities. More than three dozen UNCW researchers have begun projects related to the disease since the outbreak began threatening the United States in early spring. These projects often involve interdisciplinary and even multi-institutional teams, and many include graduate students or post doctoral associates. “UNCW faculty and staff in all four colleges are using their expertise to learn more about how the COVID-19 outbreak has affected our communities, schools, health care workers, businesses and our individual behaviors,” said Stuart Borrett, associate provost for research and innovation.
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One of the most watched aspects of the pandemic is where the coronavirus is spreading and the people it affects. UNCW data scientist and associate professor of mathematics and statistics Rachel Carroll is leading a team that has adapted publicly available COVID-19 data to visualize the outbreak in North Carolina and the state’s southeastern region. The project also involves Mark Lammers (mathematics and statistics/data science), Dylan McNamara (physics and physical oceanography), postdoctoral researcher Zachary Williams and several M.S. Data Science students. Carroll began looking into data related to the COVID-19 crisis in early March 2020.
