There are two tutorial sessions for MECC 2021:

Engaging Your Students with Interactive Exercises, Virtual Labs and Low-Cost Hardware Experiments Using MATLAB and Simulink
More details here.

Modeling, Estimation, and Control of COVID-19
More details here.

Organizer: Philip E. Pare´

The main goal of this tutorial session is to facilitate discussion among colleagues, as well as instruct attendees as to how the control community has contributed and is still contributing to the fight against the current COVID-19 pandemic, and how it can contribute to preventing and fighting future pandemic via modeling, estimation, and control in the area of virus spread over networks, testing, vaccine development, etc. We have assembled the leaders from over the last 10 years both in and outside of the control’s field. Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we expect interest in this tutorial session to be high. We are planning to host a hybrid session, however, we are prepared to shift to a completely online structure, if needed.

1. Perspectives on Epidemiological Models, their History and Analysis

Presenter: Francesco Bullo, UC Santa Barbara, USA.
We will review the rich history and the basic mathematical models in epidemiology. Second, we discuss modeling and analysis aspects for the multi-group SIR models. We present anal- ysis results on transient behavior, threshold conditions, stability properties, and asymptotic convergence. We pay special attention to monotonicity and contractivity properties of the resulting dynamical models. Finally, we briefly discuss a recently developed model of SIS epidemic propagation over hypergraphs. For simplicial and higher-order interactions, we show how a new dynamical behavior domain appears: both a disease-free equilibrium and an endemic equilibrium co-exist and are locally asymptotically stable.

2. Real-World COVID-19 Control: Considerations for Modelers

Presenter: Rebecca Smith, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA.
Models are, by necessity, simplifications of the real world. However, they can be used for practical, real-world applications if implemented and interpreted correctly. Model forecasts can guide policy by suggesting the best path forward, identify faulty assumptions that put control programs at risk, and prioritize public health approaches in resource-limited envi- ronments. Examples from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will show how even model failure can be useful in the face of a pandemic.

3. Testing as a Mitigation Strategy of COVID-19

Presenter: Baike She, Shreyas Sundaram, and Philip E. Pare´, Purdue University, USA.
We consider the use of testing rate [and isolation] as a mitigation strategy for epidemic spread. Specifically, we formulate a model predictive control problem to dynamically choose the testing rate, incorporating constraints from the environment and limitations on testing resources. Additionally, we leverage data and learning methods to update the model parameters recursively during the control process, facilitating potential implementation of the developed framework in real-world settings.

4. Closing the Loop: How Do We Employ Modeling and Control to Mitigate This Pandemic and Future Outbreaks?

Moderator: Shreyas Sundaram; Panelists: Philip E. Pare´, Francesco Bullo, and Rebecca Smith.
The session will conclude with a panel consisting of all of the speakers and a moderator. Epidemiologists, modelers, control theorists, and public policy makers have had varying levels of success in forecasting and mitigating the spread of COVID-19. How can we better work together to forecast outbreaks, implement preventative measures, and deploy and encourage vaccinations?