Congratulations to NYU CUSP’s Daniel Neill & CMU Heinz College’s Mallory Nobles, who were announced as runner-ups in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) Hidden Signals Challenge! 

The prize competition, issued in collaboration with the Office of Health Affairs National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC), called for the design of an early warning system to keep communities safe by using existing data sources to uncover emerging biothreats.

The Pre-syndromic Surveillance design by Daniel B. Neill and Mallory Nobles, integrates emergency department chief complaints with data from health clinics and social media to discover outbreaks that do not correspond with known illnesses. The team is piloting a working prototype with New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and other city agencies.