Virginia Tech researchers garner two major awards in COVID-19 forecasting challenges – Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics

Nikhil Muralidhar, a Ph.D. student at the Sanghani Center, is one of the Virginia Tech researchers on the winning DeepOutbreak team.

DeepOutbreak, a team of researchers from Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and the University of Iowa, has taken first place in the COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge.

The competition explores how Facebook symptom survey data can enable earlier detection and improved situational awareness of COVID-19 and flu outbreaks that can help both public health authorities and the general public make better decisions.

The first place award, announced by Catalyst @Health 2.0 in late December, and the team’s work will be featured on the Facebook Data for Good blog. Facebook was one of the sponsors of the challenge. Click here to read more about the challenge.