The Looking Glass Platform
The Looking Glass platform was created to help government officials and health authorities create local COVID-19 exit strategies.
The software behind Looking Glass simulates the health and economic effects of different COVID-19 policies. Its intuitive dashboard is underpinned by powerful epidemiological and economic models. Decision makers can now see exactly how different levels of restrictions impact transmission rates, hospitalizations, economic activity, and more.
State-of-the-art economic and epidemiological models used by provincial and federal governments are deployed in Looking Glass to empower municipalities who do not have their own expert modeling panels.
Built by world-renowned epidemiologists and economic experts, Looking Glass helps inform localized policies for a safe return to community.
How It Works
Step 1 Add Your Local DataUpload case data that Looking Glass will use to perform its analysis.
Step 2 Compute Model FitThe models are run on a municipality's own data for a custom forecast.
Step 3 Receive ‘Current Scenario’ ForecastsReceive a detailed forecast for a municipality under local conditions.
Step 4 Begin Begin Scenario PlanningSimulate the impact of applying or relaxing different policy control measures.
Leveraging Local Infrastructure
The deterministic models used in Looking Glass are very accurate, but they are also computationally expensive.
Project Looking Glass uses the Distributive Compute Protocol (DCP) to cut down on compute costs. DCP enables models to be run across thousands of underutilized computers on local university or municipal networks, removing the need for expensive cloud services. DCP is provided at no cost to academic institutions.
The Looking Glass Consortium
Started in May 2020, Project Looking Glass is supported by a diverse group of partners. The Looking Glass consortium remains committed to its development, helping communities around the world advocate for more localized, data-driven COVID-19 transition strategies.
Distributive is a world leader in distributed computing. Running ‘Looking Glass' powerful models for each municipality would be unaffordable and unfeasible without its technology.
Providing advanced decision support capabilities to governments and large NGOs around the world, Limestone created the breakthrough economic models used in Looking Glass.
Several highly regarded epidemiologists from Queen’s University have developed the peer-reviewed models used by Looking Glass, which capture complex transmission and vaccine patterns.
DistributiveLabs provides DCP at no cost to academic institutions worldwide. DistributiveLabs-partnered universities are powering the Looking Glass platform for their respective municipalities.
Project Looking Glass was funded with $2.2m from Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster, an agency of the federal department for Innovation, Science, and Economic Development (ISED).
Try The Platform
Project Looking Glass enables municipalities and regional health authorities to create detailed scenario plans for exit strategies.
Understand the actual dynamics of local viral transmission.
Simulate dozens of scenarios and their socio-economic impacts.
Model the effectiveness of targeted vaccine campaigns.
