LivMS Event:
- Date: 19 Nov, 2020
- Time: 17:00-18:00 (we will begin admitting guests from the Zoom waiting room from 16:45 for a prompt start)
- Presenter: Dr Aoife Hunt
- Title: Simulating crowds: before, during and after the pandemic
- Audience: 16+
- Venue: Online via Zoom
- Contact: Peter Giblin
Please register via
this Eventbrite link. Joining details will be emailed to registered attendees on the day of the lecture.
As the world’s population has grown and our cities have filled with people, simulating the
movement and behaviour of crowds became more essential than ever. Not only for our safety
and security, but for our enjoyment and how we experience a space. Since the start of the
current pandemic, the concept of risk in crowded places is changing. It is not just a
question of how to keep people safe from congestion but how to keep people spaced apart
to reduce risk of transmission. Having been instrumental in the movement analysis of
people in events across the world, Dr Aoife Hunt explores how
maths, simulation and big
data have improved our planning in the pre - and post - COVID world.
Following her
maths degree at the University of Greenwich, Aoife was funded by the
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to undertake a PhD in the
area of fire evacuation modelling. This is a field of study that uses computer
simulations to assess how people might respond to a fire emergency, and to predict
how quickly people might be able to escape from a building. Aoife developed new
algorithms which could assess evacuation in a hospital environment by representing
people with disabilities, who may need assistance to escape. This was the first PhD
to tackle this computational problem, and Aoife was the first woman to win the
prestigious Student Scholar Award from the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.
Aoife’s
algorithms are now being used by modellers internationally to assess the
evacuation of hospitals and healthcare environments, to ensure safe means of escape
for people with disabilities.
Further information on Aoife Hunt:
Aoife Hunt outreach bio:
Irish Times (article):
BBC Future (article):
BBC Science Focus (panel):
RTE Radio 1:
BBC Radio 4: