Florian Onur Kuhlmeier

Problem Description:

Mental health resources, such as face-to-face psychotherapy sessions are scarce with long waiting lists. Conversational agents, e.g. in the form of chatbots, can deliver low-threshold, flexible, scalable and cost-effective interventions aiming at promoting psychological well-being. To see how this can work, check out Woebot or Wysa.

Goal of the Thesis:

There are multiple potential thesis projects in (1) writing/designing content, (2), frontend development and (3) chatbot development (with Rasa). All ideas are linked to my PHD project CADY. I'm also happy to supervise your own thesis ideas. Just send me an email if you're interested!

Introductory Reading:

• Bendig, Eileen, Benjamin Erb, Lea Schulze-Thuesing, und Harald Baumeister. „Die nächste Generation: Chatbots in der klinischen Psychologie und Psychotherapie zur Förderung mentaler Gesundheit – Ein Scoping-Review“. Verhaltenstherapie 29, Nr. 4 (2019): 266–80.

• Vaidyam, Aditya Nrusimha, Danny Linggonegoro, und John Torous. „Changes to the Psychiatric Chatbot Landscape: A Systematic Review of Conversational Agents in Serious Mental Illness. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 16. Oktober 2020.

• Laranjo, Liliana, Adam G. Dunn, Huong Ly Tong, Ahmet Baki Kocaballi, Jessica Chen, Rabia Bashir, Didi Surian, u. a. „Conversational Agents in Healthcare: A Systematic Review“. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association: JAMIA 25, Nr. 9 (1. September 2018): 1248–58.

• Fitzpatrick, Kathleen Kara, Alison Darcy, und Molly Vierhile. „Delivering Cognitive Behavior Therapy to Young Adults With Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Using a Fully Automated Conversational Agent (Woebot): A Randomized Controlled Trial“. JMIR Mental Health 4, Nr. 2 (6. Juni 2017): e19.
• Becky Inkster, Shubhankar Sarda, und Vinod Subramanian. „An Empathy-Driven, Conversational Artificial Intelligence Agent (Wysa) for Digital Mental Well-Being: Real-World Data Evaluation Mixed-Methods Study“. Jmir mhealth and uhealth, 2018.

Skills Required:

Programming skills (e.g. JavaScript/Node.js, Python)

Interest in chatbots/conversational agents, natural language processing and/or mental health/wellbeing