
The IQT Podcast
The IQT Podcast explores and offers insight about rapidly evolving technology trends and their impact and contributions to national security. Subscribe to hear from IQT and other thought leaders across a variety of tech domains, including AI and machine learning, biotechnology, autonomous systems, and more. IQT identifies, adapts, and delivers technology solutions from commercial startups to support the national security missions of the U.S. and its allies. Learn more at www.iqt.org.
Latest episodes

Aug 18, 2020 • 23min
Visualizing Data During a Pandemic, with Plotly’s Nicolas Kruchten
In this episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, Dr. Dylan George is joined by Nicolas Kruchten, VP of Product at Plotly, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company helping leading organizations close the gap between data science and the rest of the organization. Learn about the power of good data visualizations and how they can help guide decision-making and aid in COVID-19 response.
References:
www.plotly.com
Roundup of Dash apps made by community and partners: https://moderndata.plotly.com/covid-19-dash-apps/
Singapore Ministry of Health: https://covidsitrep.moh.gov.sg/
Nursing home data and app: https://covid-19-response.demo.socrata.com/stories/s/3eae-9zd5 and https://tylertech.plotly.com/
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/new-cases
Tracking and Comparing projections: https://www.covid-projections.com/
NVIDIA RAPIDS app: https://github.com/rapidsai/plotly-dash-rapids-census-demo/tree/covid-19
Traffic analysis app by Stantec: https://covid-vmt.stantec.global/

Aug 18, 2020 • 49min
Risk Analytics in a Pandemic, with Metabiota’s Nathan Wolfe
In this episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, B.Next’s Dr. Dylan George and IQT’s Ryan Lewis are joined by Nathan Wolfe of In-Q-Tel portfolio company Metabiota. Tune in as they discuss Nathan’s work as a virus hunter, their hope for the novel coronavirus to be a once in a lifetime event, the need for real-time prediction system for pandemic risk, and more.
References:
We Can Protect the Economy From Pandemics. Why Didn't We?
Catastrophic Modeling and Risk Analytics, with Metabiota’s Nita Madhav
https://www.metabiota.com/

Aug 11, 2020 • 42min
The Effect Disease Modeling Has on Interventions and Planning Scenarios, with Marc Lipsitch
Marc Lipsitch, Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard University, and Director of the Center for Communicable Diseases and Dynamics joins hosts Drs. Dylan George and Caitlin Rivers as they consider data analytics, public health interventions, disease modeling, and the need for the public health community to be at the fore to help implement, design, and execute strategies to manage the COVID-19 response.
References:
Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics

Aug 11, 2020 • 31min
Using AI to Identify Valuable Patterns in Data, with Outlier.AI’s Sean Byrnes
In this episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting Series, Dr. Dylan George sits down with Sean Byrnes, CEO of Outlier.AI, (an In-Q-Tel portfolio company) in a discussion about looking for insights – changes, indicators – from the bottom up rather than asking questions from the top down. Outlier produces a coronavirus tracker, a daily report on Outlier’s findings in the pandemic data. The company is focused on helping organizations identify unexpected changes within their critical business data.
References:
www.outlier.ai

Aug 11, 2020 • 28min
Catastrophic Modeling and Risk Analytics, with Metabiota’s Nita Madhav
In this episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, Drs. Dylan George and Caitlin Rivers are joined by Nita Madhav, CEO of Metabiota, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company working to make the world more resilient to epidemics. The trio explore Metabiota’s use of data to understand and report epidemic preparedness levels across nearly 200 countries, epidemiological modeling to understand disease spread, and a fear index revealing economic impact from coronavirus.
References:
www.metabiota.com

Aug 4, 2020 • 19min
The Value of Data and Analytics in Outbreak Response, with Dr. Tom Frieden
Data plus analytics (with human intelligence) will yield better informed decision making. Join Dr. Tom Frieden, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former Commissioner of the New York City Health Department, and now President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, and series hosts Drs. Dylan George and Caitlin Rivers as they explore what data should be collected and analyzed to enable an appropriate public health response to novel coronavirus and other public health challenges.
References:
Resolve to Save Lives

Aug 4, 2020 • 27min
Advanced Concepts in Outbreak Analytics Modeling, with Dr. Marita Zimmermann
Modeling is vital to understanding disease spread and optimal interventions. In this episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, Dr. Marita Zimmermann, Affiliate Assistant Professor and Research Economist at the Institute for Disease Modeling, discusses with Dr. Dylan George the need for modeling and how it’s used to understand which people are at risk for COVID-19 and determine public health interventions to minimize their risk.
References:
Institute for Disease Modeling COVID-19 Reports

Aug 4, 2020 • 39min
How Disease Modeling Can Help Inform Public Health Decision Making, with Dr. Nick Reich
In this episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, Drs. Dylan George and Caitlin Rivers are joined by Dr. Nick Reich, one of the leading researchers who is building operational forecasting capabilities in collaboration with public health agencies. Listen in as they discuss the need for better quantity and quality data to have more high-resolution, real-time data to enable better modeling and guide response efforts, and the development of the CDC COVID-19 Forecasting Hub.
References:
COVID-19 Forecast Hub
Reich Lab
Technology to advance infectious disease forecasting for outbreak management

Jul 28, 2020 • 28min
Call for a National Forecasting Center
Today, weather forecasters can spot the development of a tropical storm and use models to help determine its path and strength, which is incredibly important to protect those in its path. In episode four of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, Drs. Dylan George and Caitlin Rivers explain why the world needs a disease forecasting center now more than ever, and how it could work to inform decision making among government, policy makers, the public health community, and more to minimize disease spread.
References:
How to Forecast Outbreaks and Pandemics

Jul 28, 2020 • 28min
Exploring the Value Proposition for Better Disease Outbreak Data and Forecasting, with Dr. Steven Riley
Episode three of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series features Dr. Steven Riley from Imperial College of London, with Drs. Dylan George and Caitlin Rivers exploring the importance of the infection mortality rate, the value, and need for the public health community to embrace data and use it better.
References:
Report 9: Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand
Transmission dynamics of the etiological agent of SARS in Hong Kong: impact of public health interventions
Factors that make an infectious disease outbreak controllable