The health and human systems research area focuses on biomechanics, cognitive engineering, ergonomic risk assessment and management, engineering management, health care delivery, human information processing, neuroergonomics and systems engineering.
New Wearable Tool Helps Manage Mental Health
Mental health issues are becoming more prevalent on college campuses across the country, and a team of researchers led by Dr. Farzan Sasangohar is developing a wearable continuous monitoring tool to be used in a pilot program called Mental Health Evaluation and Lookout, or mHELP.
The tool utilizes advanced machine learning and a wide range of sensors provided on commercial smartwatches to detect signs and symptoms of high anxiety and direct the user to resources. The device is triggered by negative indicators, such as anxiety patterns of heart rate and self-reports by the smartwatch user, and prompts them to engage in therapeutic activities.
The researchers hope that mHELP can bring mental health care to students as they experience anxiety or depression, and provide on-demand or proactive access to virtual and in-person counseling.
Featured Students
Changwon Son is a current graduate student and plans to graduate in spring 2021. His dissertation is titled “Analyzing Work-asImagined and Work-as-Done of Incident Management Teams Using Interactions Between Cognitive System Components.” Son won the student competition at the 2019 Resilience Week Symposium for his work on resilience traits of incident management teams during Hurricane Harvey.
Yibo Zhu is a current graduate student and plans to graduate in fall 2020. His dissertation is titled “Neuroergonomic Assessment of Exoskeleton Interaction.” Zhu was awarded the Creativeness in Ergonomics Student of the Year award in 2020 for his work exploring the neuroergonomic fit of passive exoskeletons during simulated manual material handling tasks.