Washington, D.C. — The Institute for Health Modeling and Climate Solutions (IMACS) announced today that it has joined a NASA-funded project led by the University of Maryland (UMD) to help Indonesian health officials better predict and manage outbreaks of malaria and dengue.  

Launched in August 2025, the three-year project will harness satellite-based environmental monitoring, advanced health modeling, and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a forecasting model that can predict risk with greater geographic granularity, allowing for more targeted health interventions.  

“IMACS brings tremendous expertise in deep learning models, a key component that was previously missing from this project,” says UMD Professor Tatiana Loboda, chair of the Department of Geographical Sciences and the project’s principal investigator. “We’re very fortunate to work with IMACS, which has a unique combination of technical expertise and knowledge of malaria and vector-borne diseases. I don’t know of another team that can do both.” 

IMACS is bringing its novel, AI-powered multi-disease forecasting model SPECTRA to the project, which was included in the World Health Organization’s “Casebook on AI Health Use Cases Across the Global South” launched at the India AI Impact Summit in February 2026.  

“We’re excited to bring the power of AI to this project,” says Dr. Kaushik Sarkar, Director of IMACS and co-investigator of the project. “Combined with NASA’s Earth observation information and UMD’s advanced modeling capabilities, we are on the cusp of developing a breakthrough tool. If we are successful the project will empower local health authorities with high resolution data, making a real difference in the push to end these deadly diseases.”  

The model is being developed for Indonesia, a large country with varied landscapes, diverse ecosystems, and distinct micro-climates — all of which complicate efforts to eliminate malaria and control other vector-borne diseases like dengue. In addition to providing more precise geographic information, the model also seeks to better understand the environmental and atmospheric drivers of disease. For example, by pinpointing exactly where extreme rainfall may lead to spikes in malaria or dengue cases in a province, the model can help local health officials target their interventions with more precision.   

The final stage of the project, if successful, will be handing the model over to the Indonesian government. The technology transfer will be made possible by the private Indonesian company KORIKA (Indonesia Collaborative AI Association), which is led by Dr. Hammam Riza, a project collaborator.  

“I really see this project as a partnership,” stresses Professor Lododa. “Everyone has a critical role to play, and we’re very grateful to have such an amazing partner in IMACS and with our in-country collaborators at KORIKA and across the Indonesian government.”   

The UMD-led project is supported by a $1,093,841 grant from NASA’s Earth Science Division under its Health and Air Quality program, and is conducted in partnership with IMACS, KORIKA and the Indonesian Ministry of Health. 

See here  for the original project announcement from the University of Maryland.   

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About the Institute for Health Modeling and Climate Solutions  
The Institute for Health Modeling and Climate Solutions is a global center of excellence dedicated to developing AI-informed predictive tools and strategies that enable systems strengthening at the intersection of climate change and infectious diseases.