(November 2022) We are recruiting PhD students for Fall 2023
We are looking for highly motivated students interested in the intersection of Ubiquitous Computing and Health to join our in 2023.
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UbiWell Lab
The Ubiquitous Computing for Health and Well-being (UbiWell) Lab is an interdisciplinary research group at the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and the Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University.
We work on developing data-driven solutions to enable effective sensing and interventions for mental- and behavioral-health outcomes with mobile and ubiquitous technologies.
Research Areas
Our interdisciplinary team works at the intersection of mobile/wearable sensing, data science, human-centered computing, and behavioral science.
We work on exploring and advancing the complete "lifecycle" of mental- and behavioral-health sensing and intervention, which includes (a) accurately sensing and detecting a mental or behavioral health condition, like stress and opioid use; (b) after detecting a particular condition, determining the right time to deliver the intervention or support, such that the user is most likely to be receptive to the interventions provided; and (c) choosing the best intervention delivery mechanism and modality to ensure just-in-time delivery and reachability.

A simplified representation of the sensing to intervention lifecycle.
Current Projects
Causal modeling for physiological stress

We are working on various projects to leverage multimodal data and understand the contextual and behavioral factors that lead to physiological stress, and evaluate its association with the perception of stress.
Predicting relapse during OUD treatment

We are working on a longitudinal study to detect at-risk indicators, e.g., stress, craving, and mood, among patients undergoing Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) treatment, using passively collected contextual and sensor data from smartphones and wearables.
States-of-receptivity for digital health interventions

We have multiple projects currently underway to better evaluate the contexts where people are willing and able to engage with and use digital health interventions. These range from behavior-change interventions in free-living situations to interventions during specific scenarios, e.g., driving.
News
(September 2022) Our work won IMWUT's Distinguished Paper Award
Varun and colleagues won an IMWUT Distinguished Paper Award at UbiComp 2022 for their paper, Detecting Receptivity for mHealth Interventions in the Natural Environment.
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(September 2022) Three new PhD Students join the group
We have three new PhD students joining the lab this Fall: Ha, Tinashe, and Jiachen.
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(September 2022) Hello UbiWell!
The Ubiquitous Computing for Health and Well-being (UbiWell) lab is set up at Northeastern University.