In this week’s Tech Tuesday, UF Innovate highlights Dr. Xiang Zhong and her team in UF’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, who are using artificial intelligence to create digital twins that support critical care.

“What if we could use artificial intelligence to assist in critical care? We’re here at UF’s Health Engine Lab to learn more. Xiang, tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do,” said Elora Duong, host of UF Innovate.

“Hi, Elora. I’m Xiang. I’m an associate professor at the Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida. So our lab aims to improve critical care delivery. Here at the Health Engine Lab, we’re trying to develop computational simulation models to improve critical care delivery.” said Dr. Xiang Zhong, associate professor at the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at UF.

But a new five-year, $3 million research project funded by the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences aims to create a digital dictionary and playbook to help technology replicate the way humans experience disease. The study is connected to a $1.75-million project at UF to create Florida’s Digital Twin, a digital replica of Florida that can model the effects of natural disasters and future health threats.

“This grant is important for our research team because it helps us develop new methods and ways to manage big data. It significantly enhances our ability to understand the complexity of how environmental factors affect human health,” said project director Jiang Bian, Ph.D., a professor in the UF College of Medicine’s Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics. The project’s scope is notable for integrating social determinants of health, such as education and economic status, with ecological factors, such as pollution and natural disasters.