CSE - Advancing AI and Data-driven Techniques to Combat the Opioid Crisis and Infectious Disease Outbreaks

By harnessing big data revolutions and developing novel AI techniques, we aim to improve public health with the focus on the following two topics. (1) Developing a holistic framework to combat the opioid crisis. Battling the devastating and lethal opioid epidemic is a national priority. By collaboration with various partners including healthcare professionals and law enforcement, we strive to advance data science and AI to fight the opioid crisis through two-fold research objectives: i) (from user perspective): we are developing novel data-driven models for opioid overprescribing prediction and drug-drug interaction discovery to reduce opioid overdose risks; ii) (from supplier perspective): we are advancing AI technologies to combat online opioid trafficking. (2) Developing robust science-based decision support systems in responses to infectious disease outbreaks like the pandemic. With the large-scale, disease-related data, we are developing a new interactive decision support framework allowing in silico exploration of extensive possible non-pharmaceutical interventions prior to the potential field implementation phase responding to future natural or health-related disasters. We aim to advance the knowledge and science in the interdisciplinary fields of AI/data science and public health by addressing the critical issues facing our society.