On May 28th, 2026, three students and our supervisor Dr. Thomas Barkowsky participated in the final workshop of the Study Group “Intelligent Systems for Vector-Borne Disease” at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst. The workshop was organized by Prof. Dr. Peter Haddawy and brought together researchers from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Canada – an impressively international setting for two intensive days.
Thursday began with presentations on topics such as modeling disease spread, spatial risk mapping, and recent advances in dengue diagnostics. Particularly exciting for us: Prof. Haddawy presented the results of a prospective clinical evaluation of the Dengue Diagnostic Decision Support System – an app whose development we as the mobile4D team have supported. The results are very positive and the associated study will be published soon.
Our big moment came during the poster and demo session in the afternoon. While the workshop participants enjoyed their coffee break, we presented our current projects on posters and showed interested researchers our systems in live demonstrations. We showcased SIRcraft for modeling infectious diseases, Mosquito Classification for AI-based mosquito species identification, TB Sudan for digital documentation of the tuberculosis diagnostic process, and Microclimate Monitoring for analyzing environmental data in relation to mosquito activity.
The conversations at our demo stations were intense, curious, and appreciative. Researchers from very different disciplines asked questions, offered feedback, and showed genuine interest in our applications. For us as students, it was a special experience to present our work to an international expert audience and to see how our projects are embedded in a larger scientific context. The workshop showed us how important exchange across disciplines and borders is – and that our work makes a real contribution to research on vector-borne diseases.
