Organizing Committee
  • Mark Lurie
    Brown University
  • Anna Lysyanskaya
    Brown University
  • Julia Netter
    Brown University
  • Sohini Ramachandran
    Brown University
  • Betsy Stubblefield Loucks
    Brown University
  • Kimani Toussaint
    Brown University
  • Thomas Trikalinos
    Brown University
Abstract

The collection and analysis of large-scale population level and individual mobility and social mixing data raises fundamental ethical questions related to privacy, individual autonomy, consent, and the distribution of power in society. Balancing those concerns with the desires of public health researchers and policy makers to learn what they need from the data is a central challenge. Ethics is a fundamentally discursive discipline and useful guidance on any of the challenges mentioned above can only result from actively engaging with a variety of perspectives and openly discussing their implications for the design and implementation of the big data-driven methods and technologies used in public health research. At the same time, ethicists must gain substantive insight into the technical details of these means if they are to identify and discuss specific concerns, and provide targeted recommendations.

In this multidisciplinary workshop, we will brainstorm new ethical challenges surrounding the collection of health-related data and also explore some concrete methods that can, for example, minimize privacy loss and mitigate avenues for social control in this area (e.g., multi-party computation, differential privacy).


Image for "Privacy and Ethics in Pandemic Data Collection and Processing"

Confirmed Speakers & Participants

Talks will be presented virtually or in-person as indicated in the schedule below.

  • Speaker
  • Poster Presenter
  • Attendee
  • Virtual Attendee
  • Mohammed Akel
    Brown University
  • Stephen Bach
    Brown University Computer Science Department
  • Rachel Baker
    Brown University
  • Nancy Barnett
    Brown University
  • Alyssa Bilinski
    Brown University
  • Gerardo Chowell
    Georgia State University
  • John Fulton
    Brown University School of Public Health
  • Jason Gantenberg
    Brown University
  • Jeremy Goldhaber-Fiebert
    Stanford University
  • Marissa Gray
    Brown University
  • Deborah Hurley
    Brown University
  • Wilmot James
    Columbia University
  • Aditya Khanna
    Brown University
  • Vlad Kolesnikov
    Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Katrina Ligett
    Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Peyton Luiz
    Brown University
  • Mark Lurie
    Brown University
  • Anna Lysyanskaya
    Brown University
  • Momin Malik
    Mayo Clinic
  • F. Patricia Medina
    CUNY New York City College of Technology
  • Peihan Miao
    Brown University
  • George Mohler
    Boston College
  • Debanuj Nayak
    Boston University
  • Julia Netter
    Brown University
  • Marcel Neunhoeffer
    Boston University
  • Jennifer Nuzzo
    Brown University
  • Jonathan Ozik
    University of Chicago/Argonne National Laboratory
  • Jonah Popp
    Brown University
  • Tianjie Qiu
    Brown University
  • Megan Ranney
    Brown University
  • Sofya Raskhodnikova
    Boston University
  • Samuel Rosenblatt
    University of Vermont
  • Bjorn Sandstede
    Brown University
  • Samuel Scarpino
    Northeastern University
  • Adam Smith
    Boston University
  • Craig Spencer
    Brown University School of Public Health
  • Betsy Stubblefield Loucks
    Brown University
  • Kimani Toussaint
    Brown University
  • Thomas Trikalinos
    Brown University
  • Connor Wagaman
    Boston University
  • claire wardle
    Brown University
  • Guixing Wei
    Brown University

Workshop Schedule

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Tuesday, January 17, 2023
  • 8:45 - 9:00 am EST
    Check In
    11th Floor Collaborative Space
  • 9:00 - 9:15 am EST
    Welcome
    11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Session Chair
    • Brendan Hassett, ICERM/Brown University
  • 9:15 - 10:00 am EST
    Opening plenary: Introduction to MAPPS; Participant introductions
    Opening Remarks - 11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Mark Lurie, Brown University
  • 10:00 - 10:30 am EST
    Coffee Break
    11th Floor Collaborative Space
  • 10:30 - 11:15 am EST
    Keynote: Modeling epidemics with network data
    11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Speaker
    • Samuel Scarpino, Northeastern University
    • Session Chair
    • Jeremy Goldhaber-Fiebert, Stanford University
    Abstract
    The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our societies and re-shaped the way we go about our day-to-day lives—from how we work and interact to the way we buy groceries and attend school. In this talk, I will present a series of studies exploring how our behavior, mobility patterns, and social networks have altered and been altered by COVID-19. Leveraging global data sets that represent billions of people, I will show how myriad factors interacted to shape the course of the pandemic. Using the lessons learned from COVID-19, I will discuss how we might balance the ethical and privacy considerations around high-resolution mobility data with their critical role in responding to epidemics.
  • 11:15 am - 12:00 pm EST
    Keynote: Privacy and epidemic modeling
    11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Speaker
    • Katrina Ligett, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
    • Session Chair
    • Jeremy Goldhaber-Fiebert, Stanford University
  • 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST
    Lunch/Free Time
  • 1:30 - 2:30 pm EST
    Session: Envisioning the data needs of MAPPING@Brown
    11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Speakers
    • Jason Gantenberg, Brown University
    • Kimani Toussaint, Brown University
    • Thomas Trikalinos, Brown University
    • Guixing Wei, Brown University
    • Session Chair
    • Mark Lurie, Brown University
  • 2:30 - 3:00 pm EST
    Coffee Break
    11th Floor Collaborative Space
  • 3:00 - 4:30 pm EST
    Breakout 1: Data needs for MAPPING@Brown - led by Mark Lurie
    Group Work
  • 4:30 - 5:00 pm EST
    Report-outs and Instructions
    Group Presentations - 11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Session Chair
    • Mark Lurie, Brown University
  • 5:00 - 6:30 pm EST
    Reception
    11th Floor Collaborative Space
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
  • 8:45 - 9:00 am EST
    Check In
    11th Floor Collaborative Space
  • 9:00 - 9:15 am EST
    Welcome
    11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Session Chair
    • Megan Ranney, Brown University
  • 9:15 - 10:00 am EST
    Keynote: Synthetic data for network modeling
    11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Speaker
    • Adam Smith, Boston University
    • Session Chair
    • Anna Lysyanskaya, Brown University
  • 10:00 - 10:30 am EST
    Coffee Break
    11th Floor Collaborative Space
  • 10:30 - 11:15 am EST
    Keynote: Key concerns and principles for large-scale data collections and surveillance
    11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Speaker
    • Julia Netter, Brown University
    • Session Chair
    • Wilmot James, Columbia University
  • 11:15 am - 12:00 pm EST
    Keynote: Differential privacy in graphs
    11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Speaker
    • Sofya Raskhodnikova, Boston University
    • Session Chair
    • Wilmot James, Columbia University
  • 12:00 - 1:00 pm EST
    Lunch/Free Time
  • 1:00 - 1:30 pm EST
    Prep for Breakouts
    Group Work - 11th Floor Lecture Hall
  • 1:30 - 2:30 pm EST
    Breakout 2: Privacy and data collection in the context of MAPPING@Brown - led by Julia Netter
    Group Work
  • 2:30 - 3:00 pm EST
    Coffee Break
    11th Floor Collaborative Space
  • 3:00 - 4:30 pm EST
    Breakout 3: Applications of differential privacy for MAPPING@Brown - led by Anna Lysyanskaya
    Group Work - 11th Floor Lecture Hall
  • 4:30 - 5:00 pm EST
    Report-outs and Instructions
    Group Presentations - 11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Session Chair
    • Julia Netter, Brown University
Thursday, January 19, 2023
  • 8:45 - 9:00 am EST
    Check In
    11th Floor Collaborative Space
  • 9:00 - 9:15 am EST
    Introductory Remarks and Breakout Prep
    Opening Remarks - 11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Session Chair
    • Thomas Trikalinos, Brown University
  • 9:15 - 10:00 am EST
    Keynote: A Forecasting epidemiological patterns using multi-scale semi-mechanistic models
    11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Speaker
    • Gerardo Chowell, Georgia State University
    • Session Chair
    • George Mohler, Boston College
    Abstract
    The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need to develop reliable tools to forecast the trajectory of epidemics and pandemics in near real time. We describe and apply an ensemble n-sub-epidemic modeling framework for predicting the course of epidemics and pandemics. We systematically assess its calibration and short-term forecasting performance and compare it with other competitive statistical models. This sub-epidemic framework has demonstrated reliable forecasting performance in the context of COVID-19 and monkeypox epidemics.
  • 10:00 - 10:30 am EST
    Coffee Break
    11th Floor Collaborative Space
  • 10:30 am - 12:00 pm EST
    Breakout 4: Design and Anaylsis of a MAPPING@Brown embedded simulation - led by Thomas Trikalinos and Jason Gantenberg
    Group Work
  • 12:00 - 1:00 pm EST
    Lunch/Free Time
  • 1:00 - 1:15 pm EST
    Prep for Breakout
    Group Work - 11th Floor Lecture Hall
  • 1:15 - 2:00 pm EST
    State of the sciene: Multiparty computation
    11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Speaker
    • Peihan Miao, Brown University
    • Session Chair
    • Anna Lysyanskaya, Brown University
    Abstract
    Secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC) enables multiple entities to perform joint computations on their private data without exposing the data to one another. Since its introduction in the 1980s, MPC has been one of the most active research areas in cryptography, due in part to its wide applications and promising security guarantees. Over the last decade, MPC has gradually progressed from being purely of theoretical interest to being adopted more and more in practice. Yet, the adoption of MPC in real-world settings is still very limited as of today. In light of the recent data privacy legislations, there is an urgent need for bridging the gap between the theoretical feasibility and practical efficiency of MPC. Research in this area spans both theoretical and applied cryptography. In theory, we develop new techniques for achieving general MPC with the optimal complexity, bringing theory closer to practice. In practice, we design tailored MPC to achieve the best concrete efficiency for specific real-world applications. In this talk, I will discuss the challenges in both directions and how to overcome these challenges using cryptographic approaches.
  • 2:00 - 2:45 pm EST
    Keynote: Efficient and scalable muliparty computation
    11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Speaker
    • Vlad Kolesnikov, Georgia Institute of Technology
    • Session Chair
    • Anna Lysyanskaya, Brown University
  • 2:45 - 3:15 pm EST
    Coffee Break
    11th Floor Collaborative Space
  • 3:15 - 4:45 pm EST
    Breakout 5: Multi-party computation for analyzing MAPPING@Brown mobility data - led by Anna Lysyankaya
    Group Work
  • 4:45 - 5:00 pm EST
    Report-outs and Instructions
    Group Presentations - 11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Session Chair
    • Anna Lysyanskaya, Brown University
  • 6:30 - 7:30 pm EST
    Dinner at Waterman Grille
    External Event
Friday, January 20, 2023
  • 9:00 - 9:30 am EST
    Check In
    11th Floor Collaborative Space
  • 9:30 - 10:45 am EST
    Highlights and Discussion - Flipped Pannel
    Closing Remarks - 11th Floor Lecture Hall
    • Session Chair
    • Jason Gantenberg, Brown University
  • 10:45 - 11:00 am EST
    Coffee Break
    11th Floor Collaborative Space
  • 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EST
    Synthesis Session: Envisioning the next 5 years
    Problem Session - 11th Floor Lecture Hall
  • 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST
    Lunch & Departure
    Lunch/Free Time

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