Epidemiology models are central in understanding and controlling large scale pandemics. Several epidemiology models require simulation-based inference such as Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) to fit their parameters to observations. ABC inference is highly amenable to efficient hardware acceleration. In this work, we develop parallel ABC inference of a stochastic epidemiology model for COVID-19.

Developing models of natural phenomena by capturing their underlying complex interactions is a core tenet of various scientific disciplines. These models are useful as simulators and can help in understanding the natural processes being studied. One key challenge in this pursuit has been to enable statistical inference over these models, which would allow these simulation-based models to learn from real-world observations. Recent efforts, such as Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC), show promise in performing a new kind of inference to leverage these models.

Gene Expression Networks (GENs) attempt to model how genetic information stored in the DNA (Genotype) results in the synthesis of proteins, and consequently, the physical traits of an organism (Phenotype). Deciphering GENs plays an important role in a wide range of applications from genetic studies of the origins of life to personalized healthcare. Probabilistic graphical models such as Bayesian Networks (BNs) are used to perform learning and inference of GENs from genetic data.