Stress and Stressor AI: The Next Frontier of Wellness with Wearables
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In-person at Mission Hall MH-1400
11:30am-12:30pm
Wearables have transformed how people monitor physical activity and sleep, yet one of the most important risk factors for chronic disease remains difficult to measure and manage in daily life: stress. Many individuals accept stress as an unavoidable consequence of success in school, work, and relationships. Although some wearables now report stress scores, these measures often fail to align with users’ lived experiences, limiting their usefulness and long-term engagement.
To make stress tracking truly impactful, several challenges must be addressed: accurately detecting stress in real-world settings, capturing the context surrounding stress episodes, aligning measurements with subjective experience, and delivering interventions that help individuals remain within their optimal stress zone. Solving these challenges could enable people to live healthier, longer, and more productive lives.
This talk will draw on 18 years of multidisciplinary research on wearable sensing, stress AI, and just-in-time adaptive interventions. It will present advances in detecting stress from wearable physiological signals and discuss lessons learned from translating these technologies into real-world use. The talk will conclude with a vision for the next frontier: moving beyond stress AI to stressor AI, systems that can automatically identify the causes of stress and enable more personalized, effective interventions.
Bio:
Santosh Kumar is the Lillian & Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence Professor in Computer Science at the University of Memphis. He directs the NIH-funded mDOT Center (P41) and previously led the NIH-funded MD2K Center of Excellence. He is also co-founder and CEO of CuesHub, PBC. His research has pioneered wearable AI methods for detecting stress, smoking, craving, cocaine use, toothbrushing, flossing, and stressful conversations using physiological and behavioral sensors. His work has helped establish the scientific foundations for real-time, just-in-time adaptive interventions that support health and well-being in everyday life.
Add to Calendar2026-06-26 18:30:002026-06-26 19:30:00UCSF AI Seminar Series
In-person at Mission Hall MH-1400
11:30am-12:30pm
Wearables have transformed how people monitor physical activity and sleep, yet one of the most important risk factors for chronic disease remains difficult to measure and manage in daily life: stress. Many individuals accept stress as an unavoidable consequence of success in school, work, and relationships. Although some wearables now report stress scores, these measures often fail to align with users’ lived experiences, limiting their usefulness and long-term engagement.
To make stress tracking truly impactful, several challenges must be addressed: accurately detecting stress in real-world settings, capturing the context surrounding stress episodes, aligning measurements with subjective experience, and delivering interventions that help individuals remain within their optimal stress zone. Solving these challenges could enable people to live healthier, longer, and more productive lives.
This talk will draw on 18 years of multidisciplinary research on wearable sensing, stress AI, and just-in-time adaptive interventions. It will present advances in detecting stress from wearable physiological signals and discuss lessons learned from translating these technologies into real-world use. The talk will conclude with a vision for the next frontier: moving beyond stress AI to stressor AI, systems that can automatically identify the causes of stress and enable more personalized, effective interventions.
Bio:
Santosh Kumar is the Lillian & Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence Professor in Computer Science at the University of Memphis. He directs the NIH-funded mDOT Center (P41) and previously led the NIH-funded MD2K Center of Excellence. He is also co-founder and CEO of CuesHub, PBC. His research has pioneered wearable AI methods for detecting stress, smoking, craving, cocaine use, toothbrushing, flossing, and stressful conversations using physiological and behavioral sensors. His work has helped establish the scientific foundations for real-time, just-in-time adaptive interventions that support health and well-being in everyday life.
Division of Clinical Informatics and Digital TransformationAmerica/Los_Angelespublic