Mathematical Epidemiology Goes to College

Abstract

Every year waves of illnesses sweep through college campuses. This seems a natural result of sleep-deprived college students living, working, and playing together. Such outbreaks suggest questions: How many people will become infected? How can illnesses be contained? And crucially: How is mathematics involved? Mathematical epidemiology is the study of modeling diseases, often using compartmental models. We can use such models to learn from past outbreaks and investigate theoretical future outbreaks. In this article we present models that were inspired by two real-life outbreaks at a small residential college campus: H1N1 influenza in 2009 and, surprisingly, mumps in 2016