November, 2024: We have two submissions in AAAI Fall Symposium Series 2024 — AI for Aging in Place. The first paper focuses on supporting financial stability in dementia. The second paper explores voice assistants to support dementia care.
October, 2024: We have published a paper exploring acceptance and feasibility of a conversational agent to support individuals living with PTSD.
August, 2024: Our team (PI: David Conroy) has received an NIH P30 grant to develop principle-driven and scalable digital interventions that promote physical activity and enhance cognitive function.
July, 2024: Sanjana and Sahiti have successfully defended their dissertations! Sanjana will be a postdoc in the MRCAS lab at Harvard Medical School. Sahiti will be a postdoc in the DIGITAL Insights Lab at Yale School of Medicine. Congrats, Drs. Sanjana and Sahiti!!
June, 2024: We have received an NIA R21 grant to create a voice assistant to support dementia care.
May, 2024: Saeed has been awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor!
March, 2024: We have two submissions accepted at CHI 2024! The first paper focuses on supportive financial technology for individuals with bipolar disorder. The second submission is a late-breaking paper on managing finances for persons living with dementia.
January, 2024: We have published a paper exploring how conversational agents might be used in palliative care.
October, 2023: Our paper on using a voice interface to support mindfulness-based stress reduction home practice was accepted in SAGE Digital Health.
September, 2023: We have received an NSF grant to develop AI teammates to support mental health workers. This is a collaboration with Andrew Sherrill, Christopher Wiese, and Rosa Arriaga.
August, 2023: Suhas presented our work on differential privacy to balance accuracy and privacy in speech-based dementia diagnosis at INTERSPEECH 2023.
August, 2023: Our paper on the effects of voice assistant personality on user perceptions of COVID misinformation was accepted in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies.
July, 2023: Saeed co-organized the “Designing for and Reflecting upon Resilience in Health and Wellbeing” workshop at DIS 2023.
June, 2023: Sahiti and Sanjana have been selected to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC)
June, 2023: Johnna has passed her dissertation defense - congrats Dr. Blair!!
May, 2023: We have received an NIMH R21 grant to assess financial behaviors in bipolar disorder. This project is a collaboration with Erika F. H. Saunders and Dahlia Mukherjee.
May, 2023: Saeed has received the Dean’s Circle of Teaching Excellence award - congrats!
May, 2023: Our paper on using a conversational agent for self-management of PTSD was accepted in JMIR Formative Research.
May, 2023: Sanjana presented our work on using a voice interface to support mindfulness practice for individuals living with chronic pain at the Penn State Consortium for Substance Use (CSUA) Annual Conference.
April, 2023: Sanjana attended the 2023 CRA-WP Grad Cohort for Women.
April, 2023: Suhas is joining Samsung this summer as an AI research intern, where he will be working on using novel deep learning/reinforcement learning algorithms on multimodal data streams.
March, 2023: Jeff was awarded the prestigious NSF GRFP - congrats!
March, 2023: Raju will be an Assistant Professor in the School of Visual Arts at the University of Oklahoma starting this Fall!
March, 2023: Johnna has received the IST Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Teaching Support - congrats!
February, 2023: Saeed was invited to talk about conversational agents to support health and wellbeing at the SPSP Psychology of Media and Technology preconference.
February, 2023: Ling has passed the comprehensive exam - congrats!
January, 2023: We have two papers accepted at CHI 2023! The first paper focuses on designing preemptive interventions for individuals with bipolar disorder. The second paper aims to improve physical activity among Hispanic users.
December, 2022: Raju gave an invited talk on “Research at the Intersection of Design, Technology, and Mental Health & Best Wellness Apps to Reduce Stress” at the 15th annual Penn State Postdoctoral Symposium.
December, 2022: Sanjana presented our work on evaluating the acceptability of a voice interface for facilitating mindfulness practice among expert facilitators at the 8th annual Penn State Addiction Symposium.
December, 2022: Sanjana and Hee Jeong passed their comprehensive exams with flying colors!
November, 2022: Our paper on automatic classification of dementia using text and speech data was accepted in Multimodal AI in Healthcare.
November, 2022: Our paper on understanding the relationship between financial behavior and mental health was accepted in Frontiers.
October, 2022: Raju gave an invited talk on “Leveraging Voice Interfaces to Support Health and Wellbeing” at the University of Technology Sydney.
October, 2022: Sahiti’s internship work at FitBit Research was featured by the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health and Penn State News.
October, 2022: Hee Jeong presented our work on dementia diagnosis using text and speech data at the ICDS Symposium.
September, 2022: Sahiti and Saeed co-organized the “Mental Health : Sensing & Intervention” workshop at UbiComp 2022.
September, 2022: Our paper on comparing two delivery modes of a supportive care platform for metastatic breast cancer patients was accepted in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
September, 2022: Suhas was selected to be a part of Google CS Research Mentorship Program (2022b Cohort).
July, 2022: Our paper outlining a forthcoming systematic review of design approaches and evaluation methods in mHealth apps targeting substance use has been published on JMIR Research Protocols.
July, 2022: Raju has joined the lab as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome, Raju!
June, 2022: Sarah and Suhas were awarded the NSF NRT LINDIV Graduate Fellowship.
April, 2022: We have received the SSRI Large Pilot Award to support financial wellbeing of individuals with bipolar disorder.
April, 2022: Sahiti has passed the comprehensive exam — congrats!
April, 2022: Our team has been selected to receive funding for the next phase of the Nittany AI Challenge.
March, 2022: Sahiti is attending the 2022 CRA-WP Grad Cohort Workshop for IDEALS.
February, 2022: The WHI Lab’s Nittany AI team has advanced to the second phase of the Nittany AI Challenge.
February, 2022: Sahiti is joining Google this summer as a research intern with the FitBit Research team, where she will be working on understanding individuals’ menstrual health journeys through biometric signals.
January, 2022: Our paper on privacy sensitive speech analysis using federated learning to assess depression has been accepted in ICASSP.
January, 2022: Our paper on the use of Alexa as an active listener and its implication for mental health support has been accepted in CSCW.
September, 2021: Sahiti was selected to be a part of the 2021 Google CS Research Mentorship Program
September, 2021: Sahiti and Saeed co-organized the “Mental Health : Sensing & Intervention” workshop at UbiComp 2021.
September, 2021: Johnna presented her work at the UbiComp doctoral colloquium!
August, 2021: We have two papers accepted in the UbiComp/ISWC Adjunct Proceedings.
August, 2021: Welcome to 3 new members: Suhas, Jeff, and Sarah!!
June, 2021: Johnna and Saeed gave a keynote speech at the CHHA (Canadian Hard of Hearing Association) National Educational Conference.
April, 2021: Our project using smart speakers to provide personalized care for women with metastatic breast cancer was featured in Penn State News.
April, 2021: Sanjana and Hee Jeong attended the 2021 CRA-WP Grad Cohort for Women.
March, 2021: Johnna passed her comprehensive exam with flying colors!
January, 2021: We have two papers accepted in CHI 2021 Late Breaking Work.
January, 2021: Johnna participated in a podcast interview discussing her work on smart assistant accessibility.
January, 2021: Our project on smart assistant accessibility was featured in Penn State News, Science Blog, Hearing Review, and The Hearing Health Foundation.