Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) announced that Santa Fe, New Mexico—based CIVA (Company for Information Visualization and Analysis) has signed an agreement to license EpiCast software from the laboratory.
EpiCast is an epidemiological modeling and simulation system invented by LANL's Dr. Tim Germann that was designed to help understand the spread and impact from a pandemic of the so-called avian influenza (H5N1).
EpiCast has been widely publicized and received positive acclaim due to its ability to model pandemics at the individual human level in a population, backed by the most current science on the natural and deliberate spread of pathogens. CIVA will be able to run flu impact models for government, public and private organizations.
According to Duncan McBranch, Technology Transfer Division Leader at LANL, "The team CIVA has assembled to commercialize EpiCast is impressive. All have direct experience in taking technology-based products to market, and most of the CIVA leadership have a successful record of doing so with Los Alamos technology."
The input variables for EpiCast can be as detailed as the actual data available. For instance, EpiCast has been run using U.S. census and transportation data at the individual level (population of 280 million). However, running detailed simulations of this type requires enormous supercomputing power.
CIVA said EpiCast would be made available, using a service—centric model, to all organizations, taking into account their ability to pay.
The cost to subsidize nonprofit organizations and agencies will come from nonprofit endowments, government grants, and nongovernmental organizations.
According to Dr. L. Robert Libutti, CIVA chairman, "We feel we have a responsibility to humanity to disseminate the modeling as widely and as fast as possible. We are making every effort possible to make EpiCast available to any and all organizations who could benefit from the insight the model affords."
LANL is a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of U.S. national security.
The laboratory is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, BWX Technologies, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
LANL enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.
CIVA was founded to commercialize the great wealth of information visualization and data mining technologies developed at U.S. national laboratories, including LANL, Sandia National Laboratories, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
CIVA is backed with private equity and led by Dr. Libutti.
