COVID Information Commons


Summer 2023 CIC Webinar Recap

The fourteenth session of the COVID Information Commons (CIC) webinar series took place on July 26th, 2023. In this forum, leading COVID-19 scientists presented their current research on the global pandemic.  Event moderators included Florence Hudson, Executive Director of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub at Columbia University and COVID Information Commons Principal Investigator […]

NEBD Hub Logo

NEBD Hub Logo

Spring 2023 CIC Webinar Recap

The thirteenth in the series of COVID Information Commons (CIC) webinars which began in 2020 took place on April 24th, 2023. In this forum, leading COVID-19 scientists presented their current research on the global pandemic.  Event moderators included Florence Hudson, Executive Director of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub at Columbia University and COVID […]


The Covid Information Commons & Columbia University Libraries – using translation & transcription to increase accessibility to NSF-funded research

by Lauren Close, Lylybell Teran, and Esther Jackson, with editorial support from Florence Hudson, Macy Moujabber, Isabella Graham-Martinez, and Jeremiah Mercurio With thanks to Lara Azar, Elia Bregman, Brian Buckley, Cora Lee Cole, Victoria Horrocks, Saanya Subasinghe, Rhyley Vaughan, and Kathryn Pope. As our scholarly communication ecosystem becomes increasingly reliant on digital […]

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COVID Information Commons: Lightning Talks (July 2022)

The COVID Information Commons (CIC) webinar took place on July 15th, 2022. In this forum, leading COVID-19 scientists presented their current research on the global pandemic.  Event moderators included Florence Hudson, Executive Director of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub at Columbia University and COVID Information Commons Principal Investigator (PI), and Lauren Close, […]

COVID virus artist rendering

COVID Information Commons: Lightning Talks (June 2022)

The June 2022 COVID Information Commons (CIC) webinar took place on June 10th, 2022. In this forum, leading COVID-19 scientists funded by NSF presented their current research on the global pandemic.  Event moderators included Florence Hudson, Executive Director of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub at Columbia University and COVID Information Commons Principal […]

poster for June 2022 CIC webinar

March CIC Webinar Poster

COVID Information Commons: Lightning Talks (March 2022)

Guest Post:  Kenia Pujols Keywords: Pandemic, virtual reality, health, data science, mandates, government, collaboration, diagnostics, depression, social isolation, learning, COVID-19. A recording of this event is available on the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub’s YouTube Channel and the COVID Information Commons website at covidinfocommons.net. The COVID Information Commons is an […]


February 2022 CIC Webinar Poster

COVID Information Commons: Lightning Talks (February 2022)

Post Guest: Haleigh Stewart Four NSF-funded researchers convened on Friday, February 4th, 2022 at the COVID-19 Research Webinar Lightning Talk, marking the 17th event of the webinar series. Organized through the COVID Information Commons (CIC), the COVID-19 Research Webinar series fosters collaboration across different disciplines and provides a virtual platform […]


COVID Information Commons: Lightning Talks (January 2022)

Guest Post:  Kenia Pujols Keywords: Pandemic, STEM, structural biology, crystallography, MARCO polo, COVID-ARC, bibliometrics, health, data science, collaboration, archive, COVID-19. A recording of this event is available at the Northeast Big Data Hub’s YouTube Channel and covidinfocommons.net. The COVID Information Commons is a NSF-funded project brought to you by the […]

February 2022 CIC Webinar Poster

Image of the front page of the CIC website

National Science Foundation (NSF) Awards $2 Million for COVID Information Commons Extension for Pandemic Recovery (CIC-E) 

New York, NY – October 5, 2021 The COVID Information Commons (CIC) project, a program led by the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub in the Data Science Institute at Columbia University, in collaboration with the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub, the South Big Innovation Data Hub, and the West Big […]


Screenshot February CIC Lightning Talks

Chocolate to Reduce COVID Spread? Researchers Discuss Their Work in February Webinar

During February’s COVID Information Commons (CIC) webinar, researchers, students, and non-profit leaders gathered to discuss and collaborate on research about COVID. The webinar featured talks from seven scientists from across the nation who shared insights on their NSF-funded research. Speakers included Naomi Senehi from Rice University, Nicola Sochacka from the […]


2021 Kicks off with New Insights by COVID-19 Researchers and the Undergraduate Student Paper Challenge

On Wednesday, January 13, 2021, seven scientists from across the nation joined us as part of the ongoing COVID-19 Research Webinar series organized through the COVID Information Commons. During the event, each researcher shared their work, providing new insights regarding the global pandemic and revealed some of the unexpected implications […]

CIC Lightning Talk Screenshot

Woman with baby in face mask outside

Announcement of Student Paper Challenge and shared insights amongst COVID-19 researchers at the December COVID Information Commons webinar

Over 80 people convened for this month’s COVID webinar, as six NSF Rapid Response Research investigators from across the United States shared their research topics and findings regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, and the new COVID Information Commons Student Paper Challenge was announced. This month’s presenters included Foad Hamidi (University of […]


COVID-19 researchers share insights at the November COVID Information Commons webinar.

This month’s Covid Information Commons (CIC) webinar brought together researchers, students and leaders in nonprofits. The CIC serves as a platform for researchers and scientists to share knowledge and collaborate on research about COVID. This month, the CIC project team announced the launch of a new feature at covidinfocommons.net: the […]

coronavirus artist rendering

coronavirus artist rendering

Researchers share new insights and opportunities for collaboration at October’s COVID Information Commons Webinar

Eight scientists spoke with an enthusiastic community at the second COVID-19 Research Webinar organized by the COVID Information Commons on October 16, 2020. Presenters who shared their latest research findings regarding the current pandemic included Rachel Wu (University of California-Riverside), Sara Rampazzi (University of Michigan), Sarah Bowman (Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research […]


woman in mask picking up produce

5 Questions with COVID Researchers: Debra Laefer, New York University

We tried to understand to what extent people coming from a COVID-19-infected environment interact with the built and natural environment. Specifically, we wanted to understand in three dimensions what people touched, how much they touched, and where they went coming out of hospitals and urgent care facilities at the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak.


5 Questions with COVID Researchers: Amy Pickering, Tufts University

The role of contaminated surfaces (fomites) in community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been debated. Our team is sampling high-touch public surfaces during the ongoing pandemic to improve understanding of the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection when the public accesses essential businesses such as grocery stores, pharmacies, and gas stations.

ATM out of use

Image of people in masks in subway car

5 Questions with COVID Researchers: Ramesh Raskar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

We are designing a public health solution for contact tracing built around digital ecosystems. Our current focus is on improving privacy, user-experience, effectiveness, and adoption of digital contact tracing. With so many issues at forefront, the challenge to solve the contact tracing puzzle is manifold.