Narayan AmmachchiAmerican chipmaker Intel Corp has teamed up with an institute in Costa Rica to help the Central American country leverage the power of data science in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
As per the agreement, nine engineers from Intel will work with the employees of the Costa Rican Social Security Institute to develop predictive mathematical and statistical models for managing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Collecting and analyzing data is crucial to containing the virus, says the Silicon Valley firm, adding that the data can help the authorities to figure out how to prepare the healthcare system to combat the pandemic.
The project will arm the institute’s technical team with data science techniques, enabling it to monitor the situation in real time.
The ‘models’ will be based on general statistical data, such as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases as well as age and gender of the people infected.
The institute says the data will accelerate its decisions on allocating resources to different health care centers spread across the country.
“At times like this, public institutions and private companies need to work as a team toward the same goal, which is to combat this pandemic to the benefit of the country,” stated Dr. Roberto Cervantes Barrantes, the institute’s general manager.
Intel recently donated US$ 70,000 to the National Emergency Commission (CNE), in addition to delivering more than 16,000 surgical masks to the country’s health workers.
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