# Surety BioEvent App **Domain:** Austin Research / Programs **Doc Type:** Research entity **Source basis:** Supplied research cluster with linked references; see the [[wiki/Austin Research Evidence Map|evidence map]] for verification scope. The **Surety BioEvent App** is a [[wiki/Defense Threat Reduction Agency|DTRA]]-funded UT project designed to assess the trustworthiness of data sources for a [[wiki/Biosurveillance|biosurveillance]] objective. [[wiki/Suzanne Barber|Suzanne Barber]], [[wiki/Lauren Ancel Meyers|Lauren Meyers]], and [[wiki/Andy Ellington|Andy Ellington]] are named investigators. It supplies a specific connection between identity/trust research and epidemic early warning. ## Method The proposed filter represents each source through **Identity, Expertise, Reputation, Experience, Authority, and Separation**, then uses a multi-objective sequential optimization approach to match source surety to surveillance goals and constraints. Its motivating influenza work combined physician reporting with [[wiki/Google Flu Trends|Google Flu Trends]] and found that usefulness varied between seasonal and pandemic conditions. Reliability is therefore contextual rather than an intrinsic score attached to a source forever. ## Chronology UT’s announcement is dated **September 3, 2013**; Barber’s CV records a **May 1, 2014–April 30, 2017** project period and **$2,771,939** award. Preserve both as publication and performance dates. The relationship between the announcement date and the later recorded start is not explained by these sources. The announcement calls the host a **[[wiki/Biosurveillance Ecosystem|BioSurveillance Virtual Environment]] (BSVE)**; later DTRA material uses **Biosurveillance Ecosystem**. The source-specific names are retained under that system’s canonical node. The project concerns evidence selection for biological-state inference, a distinct task from estimating uncertainty in a physical simulation. ## Connected entries [[wiki/Suzanne Barber|Suzanne Barber]] · [[wiki/Lauren Ancel Meyers|Lauren Ancel Meyers]] · [[wiki/Andy Ellington|Andy Ellington]] · [[wiki/Source Trust Tuple|Source Trust Tuple]] · [[wiki/Biosurveillance Ecosystem|Biosurveillance Ecosystem]] · [[wiki/Defense Threat Reduction Agency|Defense Threat Reduction Agency]] · [[wiki/Google Flu Trends|Google Flu Trends]] · [[wiki/Multi-Use Inference and Control|Multi-Use Inference and Control]] · [[wiki/Austin Research Evidence Map|Austin Research Evidence Map]] · [[wiki/Sensor and Social Networks Armed to Detect and Defend against Terrorist Attacks|Sensor and Social Networks Armed to Detect and Defend against Terrorist Attacks]] ## Sources and corpus context - [[research/The Austin Executable Loop|The Austin Executable Loop — master document]] - [Prof. Suzanne Barber Awarded DTRA Grant for Work on Surety BioEvent App](https://ece.utexas.edu/news/prof-suzanne-barber-awarded-dtra-grant-work-surety-bioevent-app) - [K. Suzanne Barber — UT curriculum vitae, p. 29](https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/student/coursedocs/courses/nlogon/download/14637316/#page=29) **Cluster:** [[wiki/Austin Executable Loop|Austin Executable Loop]] · [[wiki/Austin Research Evidence Map|Austin Research Evidence Map]] <!-- BEGIN AUSTIN SURVEILLANCE FIELD --> ## Observation without a single enrolled cohort The surveillance-field essay emphasizes that information can become a biosurveillance input through routine reporting, search aggregates, and other existing streams. BioEvent’s source-trust objective concerns how such inputs should influence an estimate. The observational unit and permitted use of each feed remain necessary to explain what the system knows. [[wiki/Observation and Human-Subject Research|Research classification]] cannot be settled simply by the absence of recruitment. The revised Common Rule includes identifiable-private-data research as well as scoped nonresearch activities, and its revised text should not be backdated to BioEvent’s 2014–2017 period. **Follow:** [[wiki/Population State Estimation|Population State Estimation]] · [[wiki/Observation and Human-Subject Research|Observation and Human-Subject Research]] · [[wiki/Google Flu Trends|Google Flu Trends]] **Source:** [[research/The Austin Surveillance Field|The Austin Surveillance Field]]; [UT ECE — Surety BioEvent grant announcement, September 3, 2013](https://ece.utexas.edu/news/prof-suzanne-barber-awarded-dtra-grant-work-surety-bioevent-app); [45 CFR 46.102, 2020 edition, definition of research and exclusions](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2020-title45-vol1/pdf/CFR-2020-title45-vol1-sec46-102.pdf). <!-- END AUSTIN SURVEILLANCE FIELD -->