معرفی
Nathaniel Osgood is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Saskatchewan, with additional appointments as Associate Faculty in the Department of Community Health & Epidemiology and the Bioengineering Division. His work bridges computer science, public health, and epidemiology, focusing on developing computational tools to improve health decision-making through the integration of Data Science, Systems Science, and Computational Science.
- Professor, Department of Computer Science
- Associate Faculty, Department of Community Health & Epidemiology
- Associate Faculty, Bioengineering Division
- Office: 254.4 Thorvaldson Building (Computational Epidemiology and Public Health Informatics Lab)
Dr. Osgood completed his entire formal education at MIT, earning a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering (1990), an Sc.M. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (1993), and a Ph.D. in Computer Science (1999). Prior to joining the University of Saskatchewan, he served as a Senior Lecturer and Research Associate at MIT from 2003 to 2005.
His research program centers on Computational Epidemiology and Public Health Informatics, with a distinctive approach that combines Data Science, Systems Science, Computational Science, and Applied Mathematics to improve health decision-making. Dr. Osgood's work emphasizes the development and application of dynamic modeling techniques including Agent-Based Models, System Dynamics, and discrete event simulation, often enhanced with particle filtering and machine learning approaches. His recent work has incorporated Applied Category Theory as a foundation for more powerful tools for studying complex systems. He has developed the Ethica epidemiological data collection system, which leverages smartphones and wearable devices for health surveillance while maintaining strong privacy guarantees.
Dr. Osgood's research spans multiple health domains including infectious disease modeling (particularly COVID-19), chronic disease management (especially diabetes in pregnancy), mental health and suicide prevention, substance use disorders, and health systems operations. His publications show a clear trajectory toward increasingly sophisticated integration of modeling approaches with real-time data streams for more reliable policy planning.
- Google Scholar: Over 100 publications (2017-2025)
- Notable contributions to particle filtering methods for dynamic models
- Development of Ethica/iEpi mobile data collection system
As an educator, Dr. Osgood teaches CMPT 858 (Dynamic Modeling for Public Health), Software Project Management (CMPT 371), and Advanced Software Engineering (CMPT 470 & CMPT 816). He has developed extensive teaching materials including numerous video lectures available on his YouTube channel and has organized multiple bootcamps on computational modeling for health applications.
Dr. Osgood leads the Computational Epidemiology and Public Health Informatics Lab, where he supervises undergraduate, M.Sc., and Ph.D. students. His lab focuses on training students in computational modeling techniques and their application to public health problems. He has mentored numerous students who have gone on to careers in academia, public health agencies, and the tech industry.
