Frank Beamer to spread Hokie Fever 'fandemic' campus-wide
Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer is known as an aggressive leader of his players. But during the University Open House on Saturday, Nov. 12, he’ll be a different type of leader as he plays the source of “Hokie Fever,” a fun way to show how easily and quickly an infectious disease can spread.
Stephen Eubank and his team in the Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech, designed the epidemic simulation and first put it into practice while studying an actual influenza outbreak that had the potential of becoming an epidemic.
The game teaches students about potential disasters due to infectious illnesses. However, Eubank says his ultimate goal in studying disease contagion is to influence government policy and decisions in dealing with possible epidemics.
Open house attendees on the Blacksburg campus can join the “fandemic” by picking up a bracelet with a unique barcode at designated locations across campus. Each participant’s barcode will be scanned into the system. The bracelet wearers will be encouraged to spread Hokie Fever throughout the event and to scan in wherever they encounter a scanning station.
The data will be fed into the institute’s new situation awareness room where it will document and track the developing network of infected Hokies across campus.
When participants visit the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, they can learn whether they’ve caught Hokie Fever, how the fandemic has spread, the home locations of carriers, and how many degrees of separation they are from Beamer as the source.
Eubank first used the model of disease spread while investigating possible outcomes of an H1N1 influenza — swine flu, outbreak. In 2010, he put the simulation to use as a teaching tool at USA Science and Engineering Expo 2010, which was held on the capitol mall in Washington, D.C.
Throughout the Virginia Tech open house, participants will have chances to win prizes and take tours of the institute's facilities.
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