Infodemiology for the Future of Digital and Public Health
The outcomes of the National Inter-University Big Data Challenge — a student-led exploration of how AI and data science can shape better health and social futures.
2021
Inter-University Big Data Challenge™
IUBDC offers a rare and highly sought-after opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to use AI and advanced data analytics to conduct hands-on, student-driven research in biomedical sciences and health.
IUBDC™
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Program Statistics
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
IUBDC
63% / 50%
63% are women in STEM, 50% from underrepresented groups in STEM
94.5%
aim to publish their work in the Underline.io database with a unique DOI
89%
are competing in Inter-University Big Data Challenges for the first
TALENT POOL
IUBDC
68.8%
are students from the top 4 universities in Canada (UofT, UotA, UBC, McGill)
Culminating Events
Western Canada Finals
Calgary, AB, January 31, 2025
University of Calgary Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking
Three people working on laptops and tablets at a long table in a modern workspace with a mural featuring words like imagination, leadership, and culture on the wall behind them.
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Winners
Winners of Canada’s National Big Data and AI Challenge
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Na Li
Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, Adjunct Assistant Professor at McMaster University
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Saarthak Sangamnerkar
Consultant for the Data Science and Analytics Group at ICICI Bank Canada
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member profile image
Olayinka (Yinka) Awoyemi
SAS User Group
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member profile image
Sanveer Dhanju
Data Scientist at TD Bank
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member profile image
Hilda Azimi
Research Associate at National Research Council
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Rayshoun Chambers
CEO and Co-founder at Blockchain Chamber of Commerce
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Raman Pall
Senior Data Scientist, NRC Digital Technologies Research Center
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Javad YaAli
Data Scientist, Software Developer at 1QBit
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Anish Verma
STEM Fellowship, Co-Chief Operating Officer
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Special Guests
Provides expertise and fosters connections with government academia, and industry to guide initiatives.
No items found.
estern Canada Finals
Toronto, ON, January 30, 2025
Microsoft Canadian Headquarters
Three people working on laptops and tablets at a long table in a modern workspace with a mural featuring words like imagination, leadership, and culture on the wall behind them.
Predicting Falsehood of a Tweet Concerning COVID-19 Using Location, Socioeconomic Data, and Tweet Sentiment
Danish Baig, KaHo Wong, Sabina Henry
Predicting Vaccine Uptake Rate Using Machine Learning: An infodemiological Study in the United States
Xingzuo Zhou, Yiang Li, Shuheng Yang, Xiyan Shi
Machine learning-based predictive modelling of COVID-19 vaccination uptake within U.S. counties
Queena Cheong, Martin Au-Yeung, Stephanie Quon, Katsy Concepcion
Pipeline for identifying vaccine-specific infodemic insights from Youtube and Reddit and leveraging NLP deep learning models to predict misinformation
Nikhil Saini, Nirupama Tamvada, Mansi Patel
Classifying Fake COVID-19 Tweets With Supervised Learning and Deep Learning Models
Mashiyat Saif, Marcus Chung, Oluwatitomi Adebajo, Oluwatobi Adebajo
What pandemic events have had the most influence on public sentiment towards the AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines?
Muskaan Kaur Bajwa, Angelica Ramoutar, Neha Purakan
Data Exploration and Classification of News Article Reliability: A Deep Learning Study
Kevin Zhan, Rafay Osmani, Yutong Li, Xiaoyu Wang
Investigating the impact of claims on AstraZeneca vaccine causing blood-clotting on the public perception of vaccination
Jeyoung Oh, Trista Tian , Thao Tran, Max Vu
Introducing ADMIT : A First Step in Uncovering FDA’s Deceit
Jérémie Babeu, Zoé Benoit, Andréanne Boulanger, Antoine Turcotte
You’ve Reddit All: Popular COVID-19 Topics and Public Sentiment Trends in Vancouver, British Columbia
Cathy Yan, Melanie Law, Stephanie Nguyen, Janelle G. Cheung
The Plebeian Algorithm A Democratic Approach to Censorship and Moderation
Benjamin D. Fedoruk, Harrison S. Nelson, Kai A. Fucile Ladouceur, Russell M. Frost
Are You Spreading Misinformation? Analyzing How Influential Twitter Users Contribute to the Spread of COVID-19 Information
Bizhan Alatif, Jennifer Tram Su, Maggie Wang, Sarina Xi
Is it Fact or Fake? COVID-19 Misinformation Tweets and Network Structures are Highly Similar to Factual Tweets
Adam Radek Martinez, John Zhang, Simha Kalimipalli, Karan Manku
Winners
Winners of Canada’s National Big Data and AI Challenge
No items found.
member profile image
Na Li
Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, Adjunct Assistant Professor at McMaster University
LinkedIn Icon
member profile image
Saarthak Sangamnerkar
Consultant for the Data Science and Analytics Group at ICICI Bank Canada
LinkedIn Icon
member profile image
Olayinka (Yinka) Awoyemi
SAS User Group
LinkedIn Icon
member profile image
Sanveer Dhanju
Data Scientist at TD Bank
LinkedIn Icon
member profile image
Hilda Azimi
Research Associate at National Research Council
LinkedIn Icon
member profile image
Rayshoun Chambers
CEO and Co-founder at Blockchain Chamber of Commerce
LinkedIn Icon
member profile image
Raman Pall
Senior Data Scientist, NRC Digital Technologies Research Center
LinkedIn Icon
member profile image
Javad YaAli
Data Scientist, Software Developer at 1QBit
LinkedIn Icon
member profile image
Anish Verma
STEM Fellowship, Co-Chief Operating Officer
LinkedIn Icon
Special Guests
Provides expertise and fosters connections with government academia, and industry to guide initiatives.
No items found.
Blue and white cartoon owl figurine sitting on a pile of assorted closed books with worn covers.

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Previous Project
IUBDC
2026
Equitable Health Technologies: Overcoming Biases and False Inferences in AI Diagnostics and Drug Discovery
See Details
IUBDC
2025
Aging Powerfully: AI Blueprint for Chronic Disease Management and Social Determinants of Longevity
See Details
IUBDC
2024
Leveraging Open Data Analytics and Machine Learning to Improve Mental Health Research & Innovation
See Details
IUBDC
2023
Leveraging Open Data Analytics & Machine Learning to Improve Diagnosis of Rare Diseases, Patients’ Care and Support
See Details
IUBDC
2022
The Sustainability of Health Economics
See Details
IUBDC
2021
Infodemiology for the Future of Digital and Public Health
See Details
IUBDC
2020
Personal and Public Health Decisions in a New Open Data Reality
See Details
IUBDC
2019
Big Data of Recreational Drugs Through the Lens of Pharmaceutic, Public Health, and Socioeconomic Data
See Details