Center for Advanced Preparedness and Threat Response Simulation (CAPTRS)

Thank you College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin for this great article spotlighting the outbreak investigation game CAPTRS facilitated at the epiEngage meeting in Austin, Texas. "The simulation highlighted the necessity of drawing on resources from a variety of sources – and knowing that even the tiniest pest could bring about community-wide harms."

CAPTRS game designer Micael Sousa will be leading a virtual lecture on “Analogue Serious Games for Participatory and Collaborative Planning Processes: Design and Application” on Monday, Oct. 21, for Iowa State University. Micael will discuss how serious games have been used to support planning processes, especially in the participatory and collaborative planning approaches. Micael is the designer of a new game CAPTRS will share next month with emergency managers at the International Association of Emergency Managers Conference, which simulates a blackout with cascading impacts. https://lnkd.in/g2CnqQ2m

This week, the CAPTRS team joined researchers, scientists, public health officials, and partner organizations for a meeting in Austin, organized by the epiEngage Center, which is funded through the CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics. CAPTRS Chief Scientist Dr. Francesca de Rosa facilitated an engaging session featuring the latest edition of the CAPTRS Reliability Game. CAPTRS Co-founder Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers leads the epiEngage Center alongside Dr. Nicholas Reich from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This gathering brought together co-investigators, partners, and advisors of the epiEngage Center who are dedicated to enhancing outbreak response. Thank you for your partnership epiEngage! https://lnkd.in/gZRi7z5X

There is still time to submit an entry to our AI Threat Writing Contest! Submissions include a ground truth and an essay of no more than 2,500 words about a threat which could be posed by AI. We are looking for scenarios which can be used for preparedness games, either from a prevention, mitigation or response standpoint. We can't wait to read your story! Please share this contest with others who might be interested. The contest is open from now until Nov. 9. Learn more and read winning submissions from past contests on our website. https://lnkd.in/gfxxQePs

Thank you to the World Health Organization for the opportunity to join the One Health TTX Simulation Exercise to run the CAPTRS Reliability Game with participants. In this new edition of the game, we put participants in the shoes of a WHO employee working in a regional office in which unconfirmed reports of a cluster of illnesses have been reported in a district in their region. This is an interactive game to stimulate discussions around One Health and situational assessment. Thank you Dr. Landry Ndriko Mayigane and team for including CAPTRS in this program.

Thank you Wilton Park for including CAPTRS in "Through the KALEIDOSCOPE: New facets of biosecurity". As the CAPTRS team continues to develop our AMR Game, these opportunities to participate and listen to experts have been invaluable. Thank you as well to our Chief Scientist, Dr. de Rosa for sharing your insights from the meeting.

📣 Today we launched our fourth creative writing threat contest! Our AI Threat Writing Contest asks people to think about threats which could be posed by AI, and expand these to create a ground truth and narrative story around this threat.  We are looking for scenarios which can be used for preparedness games, either from a prevention, mitigation or response standpoint. The contest is open from now until Nov. 9. Learn more and read winning submissions from past contests on our website. https://lnkd.in/gfxxQePs

Thank you to the AMR Action Fund for hosting us for a great pilot of our new AMR game. It was an engaged group, and we appreciated the opportunity to share the game!

CAPTRS has launched a digital game to help scientists and experts improve decision-making in public health crises in partnership with the International Science Reserve. More than 10,000 scientists and experts in over 100 countries can access the game, through CAPTRS and ISR, an initiative of the The New York Academy of Sciences. In the Reliability Game, players navigate a hypothetical public health crisis, evaluating information that is shared as the game progresses, simulating real-world crisis situations. Over many rounds, players are presented with information and data about an outbreak to practice their decision-making to identify outbreak trends, to better prepare against public health threats. https://lnkd.in/gCCNebr9 #seriousgames #preparedness

ICYMI: Check out the presentation CAPTRS Game Designer Micael Sousa just gave on using analogue serious games to plan cities. #seriousgames