March 2, 2021 Cornell researchers found no evidence of students transmitting COVID-19 to employees or the broader community during the fall semester, but students who traveled were eight times more likely to test positive within two weeks of their return, according to a new report that is helping the university shape its ongoing pandemic response. The Cornell epidemiological modeling team, led by Peter Frazier, associate professor in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering in the College of Engineering, has updated their mathematical model to reflect data from the fall semester about student and employee COVID-19 cases, as well as the rising prevalence of the coronavirus in the Southern Tier and across the country, and the evolution of faster-spreading virus variants.