Here’s her introduction, in her own words:

Who I am

I am a computational neuroscientist and economist working at the intersection of neuroscience, psychiatry, and artificial intelligence (AI). My focus is on understanding how people and machines adapt when the world is uncertain and constantly changing. Drawing on cognitive-affective neuroscience, mathematical psychology, and computational psychiatry, I develop new ways of studying and improving adaptability across both scientific and applied settings.

What I do

I study mental and behavioral adaptability because they are the foundation of mental health, resilience, and human potential, and a key principle for designing AI systems that can flexibly respond to real-world uncertainty. I focus on assessing the mechanisms that guide adaptability because understanding them is essential to build precision medicine and to capture how adaptability breaks down and recovers across contexts and over time. My research asks: How do we know when to persist, let go, or change strategy? Why do some people remain flexible under pressure while others get stuck? And how can what we learn about human adaptability guide the design of AI systems that are more resilient and self-reflective?

Understanding when and why we adapt the way we do, we can strengthen resilience to uncontrollable change, overcome mental blockades, and make wiser decisions that align with our goals. My goal is to develop digital tools based on mathematical models that not only predict behavioral change but also explain the underlying mechanisms in beliefs, reasoning, and decision processes. A central focus is meta-learning (how we reflect on, reconfigure, and improve our own strategies). This provides insights into psychiatric symptoms of rigidity while also providing design principles for AI systems with self-reflective capacities. To this end, I created Gearshift Fellowship (GF), a neurocomputational game platform for modeling and training human-AI adaptability.

Gearshift Fellowship (GF) Platform

Together with my team of software engineers and game designers, I have built and piloted GF as a digital environment that dissects the cognitive, emotional, and social mechanisms guiding how we adapt (or get stuck) in our behavior and beliefs. GF integrates serious gaming with computational models to predict when people are at risk of rigid patterns and to test strategies that restore flexibility. Adaptive AI agents provide personalized feedback, helping users gain insights into their behavior while practicing coping strategies for stress, mood, and anxiety. Aside from its translational focus, GF also serves as a testbed for human-AI co-adaptation and as a unifying framework for research across cognitive, clinical, and AI domains.

Why I joined CDHI

I joined the Center to scale this platform in collaboration with colleagues across HSG, ETH, UZH, and the AI and digital health community, and to explore new partnerships where science and practice meet. On the AI side, I seek collaborations on adaptive agents and deep learning algorithms to build autonomous, self-reflective systems. On the clinical side, I seek collaborations with experts in behavioral activation, cognitive behavioral therapy, and psychodynamic approaches to embed therapeutic principles into adaptive AI agents that enhance meta-learning and self-reflection. On the economic side, I seek collaborations on incentive structures and sustainable business models that foster cross-talk between scientists, clinicians, industry, and people with lived experience, ensuring real-world impact.

By focusing on the neurocomputational foundations of adaptability and adaptive AI agents, my research complements the Center’s strength in digital health interventions and implementation. I also maintain active collaborations with clinicians and computational modelers in the US, allowing me to connect insights across transatlantic contexts and bring an international perspective to the Center’s ecosystem. My long-term goal is to expand the GF ecosystem into an international hub for studying and advancing human-AI adaptability, generating breakthroughs for science, healthcare, and society.

Welcome Nadja!  You can read more about her work at: https://www.gingjehli.com/