DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Aditya Vaidya is conducting advanced engineering research at the University of North Texas that could help cities better manage mosquito-borne illness outbreaks. Vaidya is just 16-years-old.

Vaidya is a first-year student in UNT's Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, and will present his research at the annual Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Health Informatics in Newport Beach, Calif., on Sept. 23.

Vaidya, working with Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Armin R. Mikler, created a computer model that uses weather and climate change data to predict mosquito populations.

"Government health departments and planning centers could use this kind of tool to know when mosquito-borne disease outbreaks are more likely to occur," he said.

Vaidya has always been interested in the field of epidemiology, and reached out to Mikler for research opportunities when he was a high school freshman more than one year ago.

"In my mind, Aditya is quite brilliant," Mikler said. "It's rare for a high school freshman to show the level of commitment and talent he did. It's wonderful to have him as a TAMS student here at UNT."

About TAMS

TAMS is a two-year residential program at UNT that allows exceptionally talented students to complete their freshman and sophomore years of college while receiving the equivalent of high school diplomas. Students enroll in the academy following their sophomore year of high school, live in a UNT residence hall and attend UNT classes with college students. After two years, they enroll at UNT or another university to finish their bachelor's degrees.