AI-based interventions for mental health conditions

PhD in Computer Science at Durham University, UK

AI-based interventions for mental health conditions

This project will aim to explore, design, develop and evaluate AI-based interventions for mental health conditions. Mental health conditions are conditions, disorders or illnesses where significant changes in emotions, thinking and behaviour of an individual are evident [APA], [WHO].

Awareness about mental health has increased since the Covid-19 outbreak, and online therapy and its seeking are booming. However, access to online/offline therapy is limited, expensive or not real-time. Although some digital mental health interventions exist (e.g., smartphone apps, VR, conversational agents), there is room for significant contributions in addressing the unique aspects of individual mental health conditions, and exploring AI-based methods for their screening, detection, prediction and developing and delivering personalized digital interventions to the target user groups.

This project will therefore comprise a combination of the following:

• Selecting one specific (under-represented) mental health condition to apply the research to – see classifications e.g. [WHO][NHS][DSM-5].
• Developing a smartphone app for delivering real-time personalized digital interventions, designed as a recommender system.
• Applying and innovating state of the art recommender system techniques.
• Reviewing existing digital interventions for the selected mental health condition.
• Collecting, preparing, analysing multimodal data about individual users by applying, improving and/or innovating machine learning/deep learning algorithms.
• Applying and evaluating Responsible AI principles (e.g., trustworthiness, fairness, explainability).

Durham University is one of the world’s top universities with strengths across the Arts and Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences. We are home to some of the most talented scholars and researchers from around the world who are tackling global issues and making a difference to people’s lives. A collegiate University, Durham recruits outstanding students from across the world and offers an unmatched wider student experience. Durham University seeks to promote and maintain an inclusive and supportive environment for work and study that assists all members of our university community to reach their full potential. Diversity brings strength and we welcome applications from across the international, national and regional communities that we work with and serve.

 Department of Computer Science is a UK Top 10 Department according to the Complete University Gide 2023. We are committed to high quality research and are proud of the people who make it happen. Our research strengths include AI, computer vision, theoretical computer science, high-performance computing, digital humanities and bioinformatics.

Lead supervisor: Dr Suncica Hadzidedic is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science with research interests in recommender systems, human-computer interaction, and applications of AI in mental health, wellbeing and healthcare in general.

Specification of requirements for PhD applicants

• –         A first degree in Computer Science or other numerate discipline with a significant component of computing
• –         MSc in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Data Science or Psychology
• –         Good understanding and skills in application of concepts, tools and techniques in machine learning
• –         Good understanding and application of deep learning methods
• –         Good understanding and skills in application of recommender system techniques and methods
• –         Excellent programming skills, particularly in Python.
• –         Excellent skills in multimodal data collection, cleaning and analysis
• –         Good understanding of responsible AI concepts
• –         Experience in designing, performing and completing a research project
• –         Excellent English language skills – written and spoken.
• –         Desirable attributes include: background in psychology (or related discipline) and understanding of HCI, user experience evaluation and user-centred design.

Funding

Self-funded students are welcome to apply all year round.

Two (very competitive) university-level scholarships are open for applications by January.

What to submit?

If you are interested in this project, please send to Dr Suncica Hadzidedic (suncica [dot] hadzidedic [AT] durham [dot] ac [dot] uk) the following:

• CV
• Research proposal
• Please clarify if you are looking for a self-funded PhD or scholarship.
• In the e-mail’s subject, please state “PhD Project: AI-based interventions for MH conditions”.

Successful applicants will be invited to an interview with the lead supervisor.