Throughout the course of our modeling development, we aim to address a wide range of questions, spanning from bacterial dynamics to socio-economic patterns. Thus, we developed three distinct models to look into the symbiotic, sociological, and economic aspects of our coral research: the Biosafety model, the Latent Class Analysis model, and the Economic model.

For our biosafety mechanism, we designed toxins to kill our engineered bacteria when low bacteria concentration is detected, and leave the bacteria to grow when sensing high bacteria concentration. By utilizing the SimBiology application in the MATLAB software, we were able to test out and visualize the dynamics of the different species involved prior to Wetlab experiments. Additionally, we performed a mathematical stability analysis to second our design.

Visit the Biosafety Model tab for more details.

Through online and in-person surveys, our team looked into society’s willingness to pay for coral conservation. By conducting a latent class analysis on the survey results, we were able to unveil hidden groups from the data, and gain insights into the socio-economic factors that play a role in affecting one’s willingness to pay. By employing t-test and correlation analysis, our team gained statistical insights into the validity of our latent class results.

Visit the Latent Class Analysis Model tab for more details.