Ring Optimization of Epidemic Contact Networks

This study compares a current representation for evolving networks to model epidemic spread with a novel representation also studied in a companion paper. This study applies a powerful diversity-friendly algorithm called ring optimization to this novel representation. The problem addressed is that the baseline method is found to optimize only locally; use of the novel representation improves the situation, but not much. The use of ring optimization yields similar or better performance for the ability of the evolved networks to model epidemics while substantially increasing the diversity of those networks.