𝛼-Satellite: Community-level Risk Assessment for COVID-19
Institute for Smart, Secure and Connected Systems (ISSACS), Case Western Reserve University

Smart City Project Overview

Since early March, Professors Yanfang (Fanny) Ye and Kenneth A. Loparo have been working together to lead the team for the design and development of a project called 𝛼-Satellite, aiming at providing real-time COVID-19 risk assessment in a hierarchical manner to assist individuals and communities with actionable strategies to slow the spread of viral infections. Because the novel coronavirus can be readily transmitted when persons are in close contact, social distancing is an approach to help mitigate the spread of the virus. Initial guidelines suggested that 6-feet of separation would be prudent, but recent evidence suggests that the virus can be transmitted over much larger distances making the use of face masks an essential part of the updated guidelines.

𝛼-Satellite is a web/mobile application for community-level risk assessment and is intended to assist individuals with practicing social distancing while meeting essential needs such as shopping for groceries, medical supplies, etc. Each of these actives requires travel and visits to local establishments and in doing so, everyone has the opportunity to make choices on where we go, when we go and what specific establishments we will visit to meet our daily needs. To assist with making an informed decision, 𝛼-Satellite provides users with easy access to publicly available U.S., State, County and City data, with time-sensitive updates including Confirmed Cases, New Cases, Recovered Cases and Deaths, traffic mobility data, demographic data, and information extracted from social media discussion threads.

The available data is analyzed and combined to provide actionable information to users, in a hierarchical manner, that is by POI (point of interest), County, City, or State, as requested by the user to assess the potential risk of traveling to a specific area. Users interact with the 𝛼-Satellite by either hovering over an area of interest on the interactive map, or entering data into a text box to select a location or locations (e.g. “grocery stores near me”), then 𝛼-Satellite will automatically provide users with the computed risk indices for each POI in the search area that meets the search criteria and provides the following information to users: Population Density per square mile for the County, Traffic Status (a measure of traffic density) in the area on a scale of 1-5 Stars (1 Star-low traffic, 5 Stars-high traffic), Public Perception on a scale of 0-1 (0-not aware, 1-very aware) and then a Risk Index on a scale of 0-1 (0-minimal risk, 1-high risk) that combines all the available data and provides an index that is related to the possibility of high contact with individuals in that area.

𝛼-Satellite is a national tool and can be used anywhere in the US, and our paper and benchmark datasets have also been made publicly accessible on the site. The first version (V1.0) of the system was launched on April 1, and we have continued to update the tool with the newest version launched in early May. A large number of users have visited the site and have provided positive feedback. We are continuing our efforts to improve the system to provide more accurate risk estimates by integrating additional factors and data as well as advancing the AI-driven data analysis techniques.

Organization's mission and/or purpose

ISSACS is a manifestation of what Case Western Reserve and Cleveland do best: develop and apply fundamental science and engineering to societal problems through an interdisciplinary, collaborative lens.

Project Links

• 𝛼-Satellite

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OF PARTIAL SUPPORT BY:

• Cleveland Foundation funding through a grant provided to the IoT Collaborative
• National Science Foundation RAPID through a one-year grant
• Google through the use of their Google Maps Platform

IMPACT STATEMENT

The project provides an interactive AI-driven tool to assist individuals and organizations with decision-making as they balance community-level risk with meeting essential needs as the country reopens.

Project points

Yanfang (Fanny) Ye
T and D. Schroeder Associate Professor
Department of Computer and Data Sciences
Case Western Reserve University
[email protected]

Kenneth A. Loparo
Arthur L. Parker Professor
Faculty Director, ISSACS: Institute for Smart, Secure and Connected Systems
Co-Academic Director, IoT Collaborative
Department of Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering
Case Western Reserve University
[email protected]