Generative design for COVID-19 and future pathogens using stochastic multi-agent simulation.

We propose a generative design workflow that integrates a stochastic multi-agent simulation with the intent of helping building designers reduce the risk posed by COVID-19 and future pathogens. Our custom simulation randomly generates activities and movements of individual occupants, tracking the amount of virus transmitted through air and surfaces from contagious to susceptible agents. The stochastic nature of the simulation requires that many repetitions be performed to achieve statistically reliable results.

Simulation of a presynaptic nerve terminal with a tethered particle system model.

Presynaptic nerve terminals are located at the ends of nerve cells; a signal propagating through a nerve cell reaches one of these compartments before being transmitted to an adjacent nerve cell. A tethered particle system (TPS) is a type of impulse-based model recently developed for the simulation of deformable biological structures. In a TPS, collisions can cause approaching particles to rebound outwards, as one would expect, but they can also caused separating particles to retract inwards.