The spread of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has reached pandemic levels across the globe. There is an urgent need to develop CT apps that not only monitor but also intervene to limit COVID-19 spread while respecting user security and privacy. Sponsored by National Science Foundation, this project addresses this challenge via Federated Analytics based Contact Tracing (FACT), a refined federated learning approach to leverage both device-level data and server capabilities in a private and secure manner. FACT enables prevention and intervention by including hotspot identification, user alerts, and continual assessment of user COVID-19 risk. FACT guarantees a private and secure way to (i) evaluate a user’s need for testing or their resilience to exposure, and (ii) assess herd immunity across the population. [Project Abstract][ASU News]
