December 9, 2008
Researchers at Virginia Tech Create Synthetic American Population on Supercomputer
On a supercomputer at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University a team of computer scientists is building an artificial America filled with fake people who are given real addresses and are based on actual demographics.
According to IEEE Spectrum Online, the researchers have re-created the lives of 100 million Americans based on census data. Within six months, they hope to simulate the day-to-day lives of the country’s 300 million residents. Each fake person is given an age, education level, and job, which reflect the demographics of the communities they populate.
Using Navteg, a digital-mapping company, information is pulled from directories and databases to determine where each person may work, shop, or attend school.
The simulation may help to answer a few nagging questions. How do fads and trends grow? How does traffic flow? One major component of the project so far is determining how contagious diseases, like flu, spread, IEEE Spectrum reports.
Researchers recently ran a simulation, using three dozen machines, which tracked the path of the virus through Chicago over a three-month period. The team of scientists sped up the software to run 10 iterations in 30 minutes and was able to track how many were infected on each day. The group will next use flight data to include air travel to simulate how the disease would travel throughout the artificial American population.—David DeBolt
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