UFII Covid Seed Awardees Virtual Seminar Series – Drs. Mostafa Reisi & Christa Court
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UFII Covid Seed Awardees Virtual Seminar Series – Drs. Mostafa Reisi & Christa Court
November 6, 2020 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
UFII COVID-19 SEED Awardees Virtual Seminar Series
“Data-driven Analysis of the Economic Impacts of Disasters” by Dr. Mostafa Reisi-Gahrooei, Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Dr. Christa Court, Assistant Professor in the Department of Food & Resources Economics
Friday, November 6, 2020
ABSTRACT:
The aim of this study is to develop a proof-of-concept framework for predicting changes in employment and income based on data-driven models of daily consumer product sales. For this purpose, we develop a data-driven approach for extracting spatial and temporal patterns of consumer demand changes, based on historic Nielsen product sales data. Although the available database is limited to data through 2018, the assessment of previous disaster events in Florida, such as tropical cyclones or the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, will provide a “proof-of-concept” for applying such methods to assess the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic or future disaster events. The ability to produce more accurate predictions of near-term changes in demand for specific classes of products will allow for better estimation of sector level employment and income changes resulting from disaster events, which can inform disaster response efforts. To learn more, click here to read story.
Bios:
Dr. Mostafa Reisi-Gahrooei is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida. His research interests focus on developing efficient methodologies and algorithms for modeling and monitoring systems through the fusion of high-dimensional and multimodal data. The applications of his work are in precision agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, and transportation systems. He is a co-director of Data Informatics for Systems Improvement and Design (DISIDE) lab. Dr. Reisi is leading multiple projects, including an NSF funded project. Dr. Reisi received a master’s degree in computational science and engineering and his Ph.D. degree in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Dr. Christa D. Court is an Assistant Professor in the Food & Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida (UF), Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences (IFAS). She also serves as Director of the UF/IFAS Economic Impact Analysis Program, which conducts regional economic analyses for funded research projects, industry organizations, and government agencies, analyzing a wide range of activities and industries. She holds affiliate faculty status with Florida Sea Grant, UF School of Natural Resources and Environment, the UF Water Institute, the UF/IFAS Food Systems Institute, the Regional Research Institute at West Virginia University, and the University of the Westfjords in Ísafjörður, Iceland. Her research interests include regional economic modeling, economic impact analysis, and connections in human and natural systems. Dr. Court is leading numerous funded research projects involving regional economic modeling and has a growing list of related publications. She holds undergraduate degrees in Economics and Spanish from Middle Tennessee State University and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from West Virginia University.