Working Groups
Working Groups are the heartbeat of our research initiative—crossing disciplinary and hierarchical lines to spark collaboration. Faculty, postdocs, students, and technicians may form a Working Group to come together in task-oriented work sessions. Joining or starting a Working Group automatically makes you an IMCI participant with access to IMCI resources including the Modeling Core and the Collaboratorium (IRIC 352) space. The list below includes currently active working groups and those disbanded.
If you’d like to join or start a working group, please contact imci@uidaho.edu.
Current Working Groups
Bert Baumgaertner | bbaum@uidaho.edu
The AI Ethics and Inquiry group, founded in December 2024, focuses on emerging ethical issues related to the use of AI in doing inquiry.
They meet weekly and represent four disciplines across seven members.
Casey Johnson, Faculty Politics and Philosophy
Erin James, Faculty English
Boyu Zhang, Computer Science
Luke Sheneman, Research Computer and Data Services
Ginny Lane | vlane@uidaho.edu
The Development of Chronic Disease is not currently meeting.
The represent seven disciplines across seven members.
Klas Udekwu | kudekwu@uidaho.edu
CARE, founded in July 2023, develops mathematical foundations to predict antibiotic-resistant and -susceptible bacteria population dynamics wiht computational algorithms indicating the best chronological order and respective duration of each antibiotic.
Four members meet weekly and represent three disciplines.
Esteban Vargas | esteban@uidaho.edu
The Mathematical Immunology Working Group, founded in November 2022, develops mathematical models to explain the roles of immune responses during respiratory viral infections.
They meet weekly and represent two disciplines across eight members.
Marty Ytreberg | ytreberg@uidaho.edu
NNOVAH currently meets bi-weekly.
They represent five disciplines across ten members.
Louise Hsu | yhsu@uidaho.edu
Austin R. Eldridge | aeldridge@uidaho.edu
The Social Media Working Group, founded in December 2025, aims to grow IMCI’s network via social media engagement.
They meet monthly and represent two members of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Studies (CLASS).
Haifeng (Felix) Liao | hliao@uidaho.edu
Founded in 2016, MIH generates small-area estimates (SAE) of Idaho health indicators at a county level using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), refining the model to identify counties with higher prevalence of overweight, obesity and, diabetes.
Five members meet weekly and represent Environmental Design, Geoscience and Health Geography, and Public Health disciplines.
Louise-Marie Dandurand | lmd@uidaho.edu
PAPAS meets monthly with fifteen members representing eight disciplines.
Gauthier Jean-Marc | gauthier@uidaho.edu
3-12 members meet twice weekly and represent virtual technology, geology, aerospace, AI biocomputing, and forestry disciplines.
Past Working Groups
Erich Seamon | erichs@uidaho.edu
Climate and Health, founded in August 2023, explored research efforts that connect climate change with health outcomes, with a focus on hypotheses that span across biological, computational, and social science areas.
Group members included Jonathan Barnes, Sarah Bassing, Nurbanu Bursa, Matt Falcy, Jean-Marc Gauthier, Xiao Hu, Jennifer Johnson-Leung, Ginny Lane, Hussain Qazaq, Dilshani Sarathchandra, Terence Soule, Klas Udekwu, James Van Leuven, Meng Zhao, and Helen Brown.
Jean-Marc Gauthier | gauthier@uidaho.edu
DVP, founded April 2019, was part of the University of Idaho’s NSF Track-2 EPSCOR Grant. They held virtual reality meetings and user evaluation meetings bi-monthly. It developed novel approaches to storytelling in the metaverse.
Holly Wichman | hwichman@uidaho.edu
GWWG, founded in April 2018, helped early stage investigators write grant proposals with the feedback of the Admin Team.
Fuchang (Frank) Gao | fuchang@uidaho.edu
Audrey Fu
ML, founded in August 2018, studied various machine learning methods / models and their application with the goals of bringing together research on machine learning and faciliating collaboration among participants from different disciplines.
Group members included Audrey Fu, Min Xian, Aleksandar Vakanski, Linh Nguyen, Boyu Zhang, and Esteban Hernandez Vargas.
Alex Vakanski
HuMoNN, founded in May 2016, focused on the development of mathematical models for representing human motions, to potentially benefit patients undertaking a physical rehabilitation therapy (e.g., following a stroke, or due to other medical conditions). The group recieved a Modeling Access Grant (MAG) and a Pilot Grant with CMCI.
Group members included David Paul, Russell Baker, Min Xian, and Joshua Bailey.
Craig Miller | craigmiller@uidaho.edu
Phage, founded in June 2015, focused on phage and phage-host interactions. Projects were funded by an NIH R01 grant and NSF Track II grant.
Group members included Holly Wichman, JT Van Leuven, Yesol Sapozhnikov, Keera Paull, Jacob Schow, and Tessa Wedmyer.
Marty Ytreberg | ytreberg@uidaho.edu
MoMo, founded December 2022, brainstormed ideas to participate in the pandemic preparedness proposal that was be led by University of Texas, Austin.
Group members included Jonathan Barnes, Jagdish Patel, and America Chi.
Berna Devezer | bdevezer@uidaho.edu
SciRep, founded in 2015, studied the current problem of nonreproducibility of scientific results across multiple disciplines by advancing theory. They used statistical theory and stochastic modeling to identify theoretical meaning and determinants of irreproducibility.
Group members included Erkan Buzbas, Gustavo Nardin, and Bert Baumgaertner.
Bert Baumgaertner | bbaum@uidaho.edu
Standards of Evidence, founded in January 2023, used both modeling and empirical investigations to understand the role that evidentiary standards play when individuals evaluate claims.
Group members included Florian Justwan, Kendal Mitton, and Chenangnon Tovissode.
Audrey Fu
StaGE, founded in June 2015, developed statistical models and machine learning algorithms to analyze data in human genomics, with an emphasis on causal network inference and high-dimensional data.
Group members included Bandita Karki, Jarred Kvamme, Elijah Danquah Darko, and Chenangnon Tovissode.