Upcoming Webinar – Advancing Fair & Effective AI for Older Adults

Zoom Registration: https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/meeting/register/VWDnTLPlTHGGmEtmUeE_7w#/registration Abstract: Artificial intelligence holds promise to transform care for older adults, yet today’s AI systems routinely underperform for this population due to poor data representation, limited validation, and weak alignment with lived experience. Drawing on a six-month collaboration between the SCAN Foundation, CHAI will be synthesizing evidence from literature review, expert interviews, and multi-stakeholder roundtables to surface why AI fails older adults—and what must change. They will outline practical pathways for building equitable AI, including multimodal data integration, standardized validation, local testing, and patient-centered deployment. The talk concludes with a roadmap for developing trustworthy AI that meaningfully improves outcomes for aging populations. Biography: Lucy Orr-Ewing, Head of Policy & Strategy, Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) Lucy Orr-Ewing leads Policy and Research for CHAI, where she leads policy engagement at both the state…

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Past Webinar – Can You Walk Me Through It? Explainable SMS Phishing Detection using LLM-based Agents

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XST7eqXmFQQ Abstract: Phishing attacks pose a significant threat to users, especially older adults. Existing defenses mainly focus on phishing detection but often cannot explain to lay users why a message is malicious. In this talk, I will discuss how we use Large Language Models (LLMs) to detect SMS phishing while generating evidence-based explanations. The key challenge is that SMS is short, lacking the necessary context for security reasoning. We develop a prototype called SmishX that gathers external contexts to augment the chain-of-thought (CoT) reasoning of LLMs and facilitate the explanation process. I will further discuss our user studies to evaluate the effectiveness and usability of SmishX. Finally, I will discuss the open challenges and opportunities of using AI to help older adults better protect themselves from cybersecurity threats in general. Biography: Gang Wang, PhD, Associate…

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Past Webinar – Listening to the Heart: In-Ear Infrasonic Technology for Blood Pressure and Beyond

https://youtu.be/K8-TKfD6Hrs?si=bUiCRsvyCQ2sP4KR Abstract: This talk will highlight the results of MindMics’ recent feasibility study on non-invasive blood pressure monitoring using in-ear infrasonic signals. Dr. Barnacka will discuss how this novel technology, validated through clinical research, can be integrated into both consumer earbuds and hearing aids, creating a new class of connected health devices. The presentation will explore the underlying infrasonic science, algorithmic advances, and the broader impact on cardiovascular health, preventive care, and data-driven wellness ecosystems. Biography: Anna Barnacka, Founder and CEO, MindMics Inc. Dr. Anna Barnacka is the Founder and CEO of MindMics, a Boston-based healthtech company pioneering “In-Ear Infrasonic Hemodynography (IH)” — a patented technology that transforms earbuds and hearing aids into clinical-grade heart-health monitors. With dual PhDs in Physics and Astronomy and a NASA Einstein Fellowship at Harvard, Anna bridges physics, acoustics, and…

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Past Webinar – No One Left Behind: Building Low-Cost Wearables for Low-Income Communities, Longfei Shangguan

https://youtu.be/_Xja_2HiQ9k?si=Y95jpPKXsb25agHp Abstract: Wearable devices such as Apple Watch and Fitbit wristband allow users to track their health statistics around the clock. They have become increasingly popular over the past few years. However, in the context of low-income areas of United States, these wearable devices are still pricey and thus constitute a critical bottleneck in their adoption. In this talk, I will present our past and ongoing works on repurposing electronic wastes, particularly everyday earphones into health trackers - from heart rate monitoring, heart sound recovery, all the way down to pulse wave velocity estimation in home settings. I will also discuss the potential of these technologies for filling the gap of remote health care. I believe this research creates a holistic approach toward recycling and repurposing electronic waste while fostering a sustainable and equitable future.…

Continue ReadingPast Webinar – No One Left Behind: Building Low-Cost Wearables for Low-Income Communities, Longfei Shangguan

Past Webinar – Intelligent Mobile Systems for an Aging World, Justin Chan (September 23, 2025 @4pm ET)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUH-9jR48Fo Abstract: By 2050, older adults will make up about 22% of the global population, driving an urgent need for accessible and reliable health technologies. In this talk, I will present our work on intelligent mobile systems designed for older adults. The first enables low-cost health screening using everyday earphones and wireless earbuds. The second is an ambient sensing system that uses smart devices to detect emergent, life-threatening events such as cardiac arrest. The third leverages compact AI-enabled radios for cardiovascular monitoring, including blood pressure. Through these examples, I will show how computational and sensing techniques that generalize across hardware and operate in real-world environments can address pressing societal challenges. Biography: Justin Chan, PhD, Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University Justin is an assistant professor in CS and ECE at Carnegie Mellon University, where he…

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Past Webinar – Technological Advancements in Functional Assessments and Fall Prevention, John Ralston and Hamed Tabkhi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37KcJYSMRHE Overview: This webinar gives an overview of two of the MassAITC pilot projects.  John Ralston, from Neursantys describes their work on bioelectronic restoration of the body’s aging balance system.  In addition, Hamed Tabkhi of ForesightCares discusses their product, AVA, which is an AI-powered, video-based mobile app designed to enable clinically grounded fall risk assessments directly in the home. Abstracts: Wearable diagnostic sensors and personalized bioelectronic therapeutics for the treatment of neurophysiological conditions Bioelectronics has been an important component of modern medicine for more than half a century, because of the ability to provide functional recovery for conditions with limited pharmaceutical treatment options. Bioelectronic devices have now received regulatory approval for a growing range of medical conditions and have been shown to provide effective treatment for a growing range of neurological conditions.In this talk we will review the…

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Past Webinar – The Impact of Light Exposure on Sleep: A Pilot Study, Erik Page (Blue Iris Labs)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcBlsqpNYeg Abstract: Light exposure is the primary regulator of human circadian rhythms, influencing many aspects of our physiology and behavior, including sleep, alertness, and mood, as well as many neuroendocrine and cognitive functions. While we have evolved experiencing “bright days and dark nights,” most of us now experience significantly darker days and brighter nights than our pre-modern ancestors, likely resulting in widespread circadian disruption. And as we age, the relationship between light exposure, circadian rhythms, and sleep can be further compromised both through normal aging (e.g., less light reaching the retina due to clouding of the lens) and age-related risk factors, such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), which is known to damage the brain’s master clock. This webinar will review the current science related to light exposure, circadian rhythms, and sleep, looking at aging and AD…

Continue ReadingPast Webinar – The Impact of Light Exposure on Sleep: A Pilot Study, Erik Page (Blue Iris Labs)