Webinar Details
Speaker: Alisa Hamilton
Date: Friday, September 25, 2026
Topic: An open-source Python package for generating geographically-realistic synthetic populations and networks
Abstract
GeoPops is currently the only open-source, actively maintained synthetic population generator that uses publicly available data and creates activity networks for any US Census location. Output files include a list of agents with attributes (age, gender, income, etc.) and network structures detailing connectivity between agents within home, school, and workplace locations. A GeoPops population can be used with agent-based and compartmental models. Users can make their own county, state, or multi-state populations following user-friendly tutorials that use a measles case study.
Bio
Alisa is a 4th-year PhD candidate in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering (CaSE) and Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. Her projects focus on methods of capturing demographic and geographic variation in human behavior and health outcomes in infectious disease models. Her research goal is to increase the decision-making relevance of scenario modeling by making simulation frameworks that are context-specific, open-source, and user-friendly.